BGB deployed in Dhaka, other cities

The government deployed Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel in Dhaka and several other cities across the country on Tuesday evening to maintain law and order and ensure peace. Several platoons of BGB troops have been deployed in Dhaka, Narayanganj, Chittagong and some other cities and district towns ahead of the Jamaat-e-Islami’s second spell on 48-hour nationwide nonstop hartal (shutdown) which begins at 6:00am on Wednesday. Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir had enforced a 24-hour shutdown across the country on Thursday (Oct 30), followed by a 48-hour nationwide general strike on Sunday (Nov 2) and Monday (Nov 3) protesting the death sentence awarded to Jamaat Ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami in war crimes cases by International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1. On Sunday, the ICT-2 handed down capital punishment to Jamaat central executive council member Mir Quasem Ali for his war crimes committed during Bangladesh’s independence struggles in 1971. On Monday, the Supreme Court (SC) upheld the death penalty awarded to Jamaat’s assistant secretary general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman for wartime offences committed in 1971. Jamaat announced the fresh 2-day nationwide hartal a few minutes after the SC delivered its verdict against Kamaruzzaman on Monday morning, according to private TV channels.