Staff Reporter :Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami observed its countrywide 24 hours hartal, protesting the Supreme Court’s judgment upholding the death penalty awarded to the party’s Secretary General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed. The shutdown began at 6:00AM on Wednesday and continued until 6:00 AM of today.The hartal was languorous. The presence of motorised vehicles was almost normal in the Dhaka city, the bus stations were crowded. The good number of female employees and the students were seen.There was no picketing in support of the hartal though several processions paraded through Mouchak, Khilgaon, Khilkhet, Tejgaon, Kafrul, Badda and Jatrabari areas in Dhaka city. The Jamaat-e-Islami and Chhatra Shibir brought out processions in different parts of country also.A number of leaders and workers of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir were arrested from different districts during hartal hours and on Tuesday night. In Gazipur, a procession in support of the hartal marched through the National University, the Signboard and the Board Bazar areas in the morning. They vandalised some vehicles on the Dhaka-Tangail highway.In Rajshahi, police arrested 11 Jamaat-Shibir activists from the city and several other parts of the district between Tuesday night and Wednesday evening. Jamaat’s Ameer of the district (East) unit and Ameer of Boalia Thana Sirajul Islam are among those who were arrested. In Mymensingh, police arrested Jamaat Secretary of Fulbari Upazila unit Dr Abdur Razzak at noon from the upazila sadar, as he tried to lead a Jamaat-Shibir procession. In Laxmipur, district unit President of Islami Chhatra Shibir and four others were arrested from the district town early hours on Wednesday. Police arrested 23 leaders and workers of Jamaat-e-Islami and Chhatra Shibir from different parts of Khulna district in separate drives from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning, while 17 leaders and workers of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami were arrested in Meherpur, 10 in Chandpur and two in Narail.
