Jamaat set to enforce hartal Thursday

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami is set to enforce a countrywide daylong hartal Thursday.
However, Chapainababganj district will remain out of the purview of the shutdown programme.
In a statement Friday, Jamaat acting secretary general Dr Shafiqur Rahman had announced the shutdown programme for Monday protesting the capital punishment against its ameer Moulana Matiur Rahman Nizami in the Chittagong 10-truck arms smuggling case.
Later, the party deferred the shutdown programme to Thursday due to the second phase of Biswa Ijtema and Saraswati Puja.
Jamaat has excluded Chapainawabganj district from Thursday’s hartal to let the local Hindus to celebrate a religious festival following a request by the community as Hindu pilgrims will arrive at Tortipur under Shibganj upazila Thursday for Ganga Snan or bathe in the Ganges River, considered holy by Hindus, according to a news agency.