| Gosh. It's Saturday already? Where'd the week go? |
Police swung into action in Dhaka yesterday as hundreds of opposition activists took to the streets to enforce a general strike to protest the killing of an Awami League leader. The opposition Awami League called a daylong nationwide strike to protest the killing of its leader Khorshed Alam, a lawyer, who was gunned down by unidentified assailants here Tuesday.The strike shut down schools, colleges, shops and disrupted business and public transportation in more than 60 cities and towns. In Dhaka, shops, businesses and schools were closed yesterday and private vehicles were off the roads. There were similar scenes in the southeastern port city of Chittagong and in Sylhet in the northeast, police said. Saturday is a normal working day in Bangladesh. Dhaka police chief Mizanur Rahman said 9,000 police and paramilitary personnel had been deployed in the city to prevent any violence. "Thirty opposition protesters, 24 of them women, were arrested after they pushed their way through a police barricade during a demonstration," said Sub-Inspector Aslan Hossen. A Dhaka-wide strike was also held Wednesday to protest the killing.