Another 24-hour hartal in Dhaka and nine adjoining districts was called for Thursday and Friday, with a view to cut off the capital from the rest of the country, indicating a hardening of stance by Begum Khaleda Zia.
The fresh hartal was announced at the end of the BNP-led alliance’s three-day ‘national mourning’ for Ms. Zia’s younger son Arafat Rahman Coco, who died in Malaysia on Sunday of a cardiac arrest and was buried in Dhaka on Tuesday.
The hartal , in the midst of a non-stop blockade, was called to protest police cases against Ms. Zia and other BNP-Jamaat leaders for masterminding two attacks on public transport in Dhaka and Comilla, in which more than 30 passengers were badly burnt by petrol bombs.
The country’s Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) meanwhile moved to revive proceedings of a corruption case against Ms. Zia.
The move to revive proceedings in the case, after seven years, comes at a time when Ms. Zia has been named in two cases of violence and arson attacks during the ongoing blockade as ‘instigator.’ Besides, recording of witness testimonies are in progress in two other graft cases — Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust graft cases — against the former Prime Minister.
The ACC filed the GATCO corruption case in 2007, during the military-installed caretaker regime against Ms. Zia, Coco and 11 others. According to the case, the defendants illegally awarded the contract of container handling at the Chittagong port and the Dhaka’s Inland Container Depot to a certain firm GATCO, resulting in a loss of Tk 145.64 million for the state.
Stern measuresAs the countrywide blockade passed 23 days claiming at least 39 lives and injuring over 500 people, mostly in Molotov cocktail and petrol bomb attacks on public transports, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked the police to take stern measures to control violence, ‘at any cost’.
The Prime Minister’s message was seen as the strongest one since the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami-led blockade started on January 5 to force the government to hold a dialogue aimed at holding a fresh general election. “These are totally terrorist and militant activities. Do whatever needed to stop these because the people expect you (police) to do so.”
Meanwhile, key leaders of trade and labour bodies submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister seeking urgent steps to ensure safety and security of the country’s Ready-Made Garment (RMG) sector, which, they claimed, was hard hit already.
