3-day hartal underway in Sylhet

SYLHET: The three-Day hartal, separately enforced by opposition BNP and its key ally Jamaat-e-Islami, is underway in the district on Monday.

Sources said no picketers were noticed on the streets till 7:30am in the morning.

Meanwhile, at least 1200 police men, two platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and 10 patrolling teams of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) were deployed in the district to maintain law and order.

RAB-9 media officer assistant police super Kazi Bajley Maula, metropolitan deputy police commissioner (sadar) Rezaul Karim and BGB-5 Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Shafiul Azam confirmed the matter.

Sylhet Additional district magistrate Hassan Mahmud said, “Six executive magistrates will be carrying out their duties on the field to ensure peace, law and order in the areas.”

Earlier on March 11, opposition BNP Standing Committee Member Dr Mosharraf Hossain forewarned that the 18-party alliance would call hartal for March 18 and 19 (Monday, Tuesday) if the arrested top leaders of the party are not unconditional freed.

On Saturday, BNP reaffirmed that it would enforce hartal on March 18 and 19 if the party top leaders are not freed.

On the other hand, district unit of Jamaat-e-Islami Sunday called a dawn-to- dusk hartal here for Wednesday in protest against the detention of its metropolitan ameer Eahsanul Mahbub Jubaer.

BDST: 1130 HRS, MAR 18, 2013
Edited by: Tilka Binte Mehtab, Newsroom Editor/ Maria Salam, Asst Output Editor