72-hour countrywide hartal from tomorrow

The BNP-led 20-party alliance has called a 72-hour countrywide hartal from 6:00 am tomorrow (Sunday) to protest against the arrest and killing of its leaders and activists in crossfire.
The announcement on fresh shutdown was made in a statement of the BNP issued Friday evening by its Joint Secretary General Salauddin Ahmed.
However, the strike call came hours after the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called upon the alliance not to enforce hartal during the SSC examinations.
Islami Chhatra Shibir also called Friday a 24-hour countrywide hartal for tomorrow (Sunday) in protest of killings and arrests of its leaders by law-enforcing agencies.
The hartal was called after thee leaders and activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir were killed in separate incidents of 'shootout' in Comilla, Rajshahi and Jessore on Friday, the 32nd day of indefinite blockade called by BNP-led 20-Party Alliance.
Protesting the killings and arrest of its leaders and activists, Islami Chhatra Shibir called a 24-hour countrywide hartal for tomorrow (Sunday).
However, traffic was almost normal on the 32nd day of blockade, marked by stray incidents of violence, arson attacks, clashes and arrest of BNP-Jamaat activists.
In the capital, police arrested at least 16 leaders and activists of BNP and Jamaat-Shibir for their alleged involvement in 'sabotage plan' from different places of the city during a drive continuing for 24 hours until Friday morning.
In Feni, an assistant of a covered-van driver was burnt in an arson attack in Feni. The vehicle came under the attack in Rampur on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway Friday morning, police said.
Shahbuddin Patwari, 28, president of Shibir's Chouddagram upazila unit and son of Joynal Abdin Patwari of Chouddagram municipality, was found dead in Comilla town in the morning. His body bore bullet marks. He was a 4th year student of Sociology Department of Comilla Victoria College.
The killed Shibir man's mother Sakina Begum said her son was picked up from home by plain-clothed police at 5:10 pm on Thursday. On Friday morning his dead-body was found at hospital's morgue.
Sources at Comilla Medical College Hospital said SI Ibrahim of Chouddagram Police Station brought the bullet-hit body of Shahbuddin to the hospital at around 6:10 am.
Comilla Police Super Tutul Chakravarty said the Shibir leader was killed in a 'gunfight' with police.
A Jamaat leader was killed in 'shootout' in Jessore early Friday. The deceased was Shahidul Islam, ameer of Jamaat's Satkhira unit.
Jessore Additional Police Super K M Ariful Hoque said: "Police approached a microbus in front of Khonika picnic spot on Jessore-Khulna Highway at around 2:30 am on Friday, sensing suspicious activities of passengers in the vehicle."
He said then people in the vehicle opened fire on the law-enforcers and exploded crude bombs targeting them. In retaliation, police fired back that left one of them injured.
Later, doctors declared him dead when he was taken to Jessore Medical College Hospital.
In a separate incident, a leader of Chhatra Shibir's Rajshahi University (RU) unit was killed in a police 'shootout' at Shamsadir in Rajshahi.
Motihar OC Alamgir Hossain said: "A group of Shibir activists hurled crude bombs targeting a police van, patrolling in Shamsadir area at around 1 am on Friday."
In retaliation, police opened fire that left three Shibir men injured. Of them, Shahabuddin succumbed to his injuries at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, the OC said.
Publicity Secretary of Shibir's RU unit Farhad Reza said police had detained the Shibir men earlier, but denied the matter when their relatives were looking for them.
Later, they were informed about Shahabuddin's body being kept at RMCH morgue. He also claimed that police killed him in a pre-planned way, and termed it a 'shootout.'
Two other Shibir activists, picked up at the same time along with slain Shahabuddin, were also shot and grievously beaten by police.
Meanwhile, Islami Chhatra Shibir called a 24-hour countrywide hartal for Sunday, protesting the killings and arrest of its leaders and activists. The shutdown will begin at 6 am Sunday and end at 6 am Monday.
Shibir president Abdul Jabbar announced the shutdown through a press statement on Friday.
The organisation will also stage demonstration across the country today (Saturday) in protest against 'killing, forced disappearance and mass arrest' of their leaders and activists.
In the statement, they claimed that the law-enforcers shot 7 of their leaders and activists to death, and wounded over 100 others during the last one month.
Rajshahi unit Shibir also called a 48-hour hartal in eight districts of Rajshahi division from Sunday, protesting the 'killing' of a leader of its RU unit by police on Friday, according to a press statement sent by unit president Asharaful Alam Imon.
RU unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) also called an indefinite strike on the campus from today (Saturday), protesting the arrest of its university unit general secretary Kamrul Hasan.
JCD unit president Imtiaz Ahmed said members of Detective Branch (DB) of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police picked up general secretary of JCD RU unit Kamrul Hasan from his residence in Karaitala area of the city at around 6pm on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Suranjit Sengupta, chairman of the Standing Committee on the Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs said at city function that the government was considering a law providing for capital punishment to saboteurs to curb political violence.
Speaking at a discussion Friday in Dhaka, he said the government was determined to restore peace and order in Bangladesh.
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