& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

28 arrested

Hartal passes off peacefully

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal enforced yesterday by the 11-party alliance passed off without any major incident of violence.
The hartal shut educational institutions, business establishments and affected movement of vehicles in the capital and the districts.
Four persons were injured in police action during the hartal hours, 11-party alliance leaders alleged. They said a total of 28 people were picked by the members of the law enforcing agencies during the hartal hours in different places.
Eight were arrested at Gaibandha, two at Khulna, three at Barisal, four at Jessore, five at Pirojpur, four at Jahangirnagar University and two at Tongi.
Three persons were injured when police went on action on a procession of the 11-party activists at Narayanganj.
The left leaning alliance called the shut down protesting price hike of essentials, terrorism and corruption, passage of indemnity law, enhancement of bus fare, and the US war plan on Iraq.
Over 4,000 police were deployed in various strategic points of the capital city to avert any untoward incident, official sources said. Paramilitary BDR and reserve police were also seen guarding the city streets.
Most of the buses, trucks and private cars remained off the city streets, while rickshaws and motorised three-wheelers were found plying as usual.
Most of the shops and business establishments remained closed.
The 11-party alliance leaders alleged that the police barred their activists from picketing and in many places did not allow them to bring out processions in favour of the hartal.
They were addressing a brief rally at 'Muktangan' to protest the 'police excesses' on the 11-party activists.
Rashed Khan Menon, president of the Workers Party of Bangladesh, said that the BNP-Jamaat alliance government had intercepted peaceful processions of the 11-party activists to please their masters abroad.
Menon said the people's spontaneous response to the hartal call has proved that they support the 11-party agenda.
He further said that while the 11-party alliance has successfully organised the hartal with the people, other political parties had to enforce hartal with hired goons.
Condemning the attack on the members of a minority community at Bagerhat, he said the government was silent when criminals were attacking the minority communities.
Manjurul Ahsan Khan, presi-
dent of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), said Bangladesh is a country where one child dies in every two minutes and more than seven crore people live below the poverty line, but ministers misuse crores of taka from public funds .
He criticised Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman for his move against the country's banking sector.
Coordinator of the 11-party alliance Abdus Samad presided over the meeting and announced the next course of action. The party will observe a countrywide protest day on March 13. A rally will be organised on Thursday at 4:00pm at Muktangan to protest police action during the hartal hours.
Later, leaders and activists of the alliance brought out a procession.