[Bangla Daily Star] Jamaat-e-Islami...
The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka
The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an
independentbranch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
yesterday called a countrywide daylong hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
for Sunday, nearly an hour after Hefajat-e Islam withdrew its hartal declared earlier for the same day.
A key component in the BNP-led 18-party alliance, Jamaat called the hartal in protest at the verdict that sentenced its leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman to death for involvement in war crimes.
Jamaat announced the hartal in a statement at 6:30pm, rejecting the verdict delivered by an international crimes tribunal.
Ashraf Ali Nizampuri, Hefajat's literature and cultural affairs secretary, told The Daily Star at about 5:30pm that they had withdrawn the hartal on the instructions of its chief Shah Ahmed Shafi.
About the reason for the withdrawal, the Hefajat leader said the hartal would disadvantage many of their men who had suffered injuries in festivities with police and were undergoing treatment at different hospitals.
He noted that they would also be trying to find out "the activists who were made to disappear" during the festivities.
Asked the number of their casualties during a police drive at Motijheel on May 5 and 6, he said their district-level chiefs would prepare a list of the "martyred" and the maimed activists.
Meanwhile,
...back at the bunker, his Excellency called the chief of staff and complained that the artillery was keeping him awake...
the two-day countrywide hartal called by the 18-party alliance ended last evening without occasioning much violence.
However,
a lie repeated often enough remains a lie...
at a presser at its Nayapaltan head office, the BNP last night claimed that three of its activists were killed during the hartal, one each in Chapainawabganj, Feni and Comilla.
Our correspondents in the districts did not have any such information as of the filing of this report at 8:00pm.
Talking to The Daily Star, many people -- especially day labourers and roadside vendors -- aired their grievances about the BNP-called general strike.
"In the last two-day hartal, I could not earn even one-fourth of what I normally do," said a vendor who sells burgers near the BNP central office.