The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports that enforced a half-day hartal in the city today gave an ultimatum till October 15 to the government to cancel the decision of giving offshore gas exploration rights to two foreign companies.
Addressing a hartal-hour rally at Paltan, convener of the committee Engineer Md Shahidullah said they would announce next course of action from its national convention on October 16 if their demands are not met by then.
Meanwhile the capital Dhaka witnessed a 6 am- 12 noon general strike after many months today without much of an impact on normal public life.
Except ransacking of a few vehicles by the pro-hartal pickets at Shabagh, Paltan areas, the hartal passed off largely peacefully with transports, both motorized and non-motorized plying most of the city streets normally.
A few activists of the hartal enforcers, however, set several copies of the daily Prothom Alo and the daily Amader Somoy on fire at Shahbagh accusing these newspapers of giving ‘misleading’ information about today’s hartal programme.
Main opposition BNP threw its ‘moral support’ to today’s hartal call while the AL-led alliance government’s allies – Workers Party and Samyabadi Dal – who have representations in the oil, gas protection committee too, preferred not supporting the strike.
Huge contingent of forces from different law enforcing and intelligent agencies were deployed at different strategic points of the city including Paltan, Dainik Bangla, Zero Point, National Press Club, Bijoynagar and Shahbagh areas.
The hartal was called to press the government to retract from awarding three offshore gas exploration deals to two foreign companies with, what they claim, having provision of up to 80 percent gas export.
Earlier in the morning several hundred leaders and activists of the committee with banners, placards and festoons in their hands brought out processions parading the main city thoroughfares including Paltan, the National Press Club, Dainik Bangla and Shahbagh areas.
The law enforcers restricted transport movements in the above mentioned areas after the picketers took to the streets after 8:00am when some of them made attacks on several running vehicles pelting brick chips.
At places, the law enforcers diverted the transport movements to alternate routes in a bid to avoid possible conflicts with the pickets.
Rickshaws and other three-wheelers are plying city roads as usual while motorized vehicles also rolled out on the streets as the day progressed with private cars following the suit.
Home Minister Sahara Khatun on Sunday warned of stern action in the events of any chaos in the name of hartal.
To maintain law and order during hartal hours 1,650 armed forces personnel were deployed additionally at different strategic points of the city, said Walid Hossain, additional deputy commissioner of DMP (Public Relations).
In a statement issued on the eve of today’s general strike the national committee convenor Engineer Sheikh Muhammad Shahidullah and member secretary Prof Anu Muhammad called upon the city dwellers to observe hartal spontaneously and peacefully, ignoring all kinds of propaganda.
Ambulance, emergency electricity supply, hospitals, medicine shops, fire brigade vehicles and kitchen markets were kept outside the purview of hartal.
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