Shutdown extended again

A statement, purportedly issued by the BNP, has announced extending its shutdown by two more days.

The statement was issued from an undisclosed location on Tuesday under the signature of BNP Joint Secretary General Salahuddin Ahmed.

The signature, as in the past, was cut and pasted from another document.

The statement said along with the blockade sponsored by the coalition, general strike also had been extended from Wednesday 6am to Friday 6am.

BNP and its coalition partners have started enforcing shutdowns on working days since the beginning of February.

Besides, the alliance has also been enforcing an indefinite blockade since Jan 5 to press for snap polls under a neutral caretaker body.

After the arrest of BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Jan 31, Salahuddin took his place and the party is since then circulating statements using his signature.

Salahuddin, however, was not seen in public for weeks.

No leader of the coalition is however willing to talk to media about their agitation programme.

Although daily life of citizens has been mostly undisrupted during the ongoing programmes, the Secondary School Certificate(SSC) examinations are being affected.

Already the exams have been rescheduled seven times and exams are being held only on Fridays and Saturdays.

Traffic in Dhaka has also normalised amidst the ongoing blockade and shutdowns. Long-route buses are operating in the day.

According to the government, 57 people were killed and more than 550 persons were injured in bomb attacks, mostly petrol bombs, on vehicles during the ongoing blockade.

The blockaders gutted more than vehicles and 28 establishments, vandalised more than 400 vehicles while there were 25 incidents of sabotages in railways and six in the waterways.