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Opposition observes Black Day with hartal

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The main opposition Awami League (AL) and some left-leaning parties yesterday observed "Black Day" to mark the coalition government's three years in office, enforcing a countywide dawn-to-dusk hartal that crippled life and economic activities.
Sporadic clashes between the police and opposition activists in the capital marked the shutdown enforced by AL, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD-Inu) and National Awami Party (M) to denounce the alliance government's "misdeeds" in the last three years.
Apart from the main opposition party, the 11-Party Alliance, JSD and Janata Party observed the 'Black Day' staging demonstrations
across the country and demanded immediate resignation of the government for its "failure to run the country."
More than 50 leaders and activists of AL and its front organisations were wounded in pitched battle on the streets in Dhaka as the police clubbed stone-throwing demonstrators in Lalbagh and Nawabpur areas.
The police picked up over 100 pickets from different parts of Dhaka city during the shutdown, 62 of them were arrested. The Police headquarters said they arrested 66 people throughout the country. The AL, however, in a statement claimed more than 300 activists were arrested and over 1,000 injured
FROM PAGE 1 across the country.
The law enforcers also picked up AL Sports Secretary Dewan Shafiul Arefin Tutul and Mahila Awami League leader Ashrafunnesa Mosharraf in the morning and kept them confined at Dhanmondi Police Station until evening.
A large number of women AL activists were also hauled up to police stations and released in the evening.
The demonstrators damaged at least three buses at Motijheel and Azimpur during the hartal amid deployment of over 7,500 forces including paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), Armed Police Battalion (APBn) and the police in the capital.
Most of the shops, business centres and private offices remained closed during the shutdown. Attendance in government offices was thin. Automobiles went off the road in Dhaka and other cities, although rickshaws plied almost as usual.
The shutdown disrupted operations of Chittagong and Mongla ports, stock exchanges in Dhaka and Chittagong and transactions in most banks. No classes were held at the educational institutions.
In Dhaka, the activists of AL and its front organisations were baton-charged by the police when they took out processions in Lalbagh, Nawabpur and on Dhaka University campus.
The police went on action at Old Dhaka's Chawkbazar crossing after the AL activists from a procession led by former MP Haji Selim pelted stones on them. A police sub-inspector received headinjuries during the battle.
Witnesses said the demonstrators turned unruly and chased the law enforcers when they cordoned the procession off at around 8:15am. Police also lobbed teargas shells to disperse the demonstrators and picked up 18 people from the spot.
Another AL procession led by Asaduzzaman Noor MP came under police clubbing in Motijheel when the protestors tried to march towards Dainik Bangla intersection breaking police barricade. Three AL activists wereinjured in the clubbing.
The AL leaders scuffled with the police when they were drugging seven Mahila AL and Sramik League leaders to a police van.
At least 15 AL supporters were wounded when police charged baton to disperse them at Rathkholain Sutrapur. The demonstrators hurled stones and brickbats at the police.
On the Dhaka University campus, the police clubbed the AL-backed Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists when they took out a procession at about 11:00am. Seven demonstrators including BCL President Liakat Shikder and Vice-president Balaram Poddar were injured and three BCL activists arrested.
The police picked up AL leader
Dewan Shafiul Arefin and Ashrafunnesa Mosharraf along with 11 others from near Dhanmondi road-32 at 10:30am.
Fifteen AL activists were picked up when AL leader Farooq Khan MP led a procession near Zia International Airport at about 10:30am.
The police dispersed opposition activists when they were trying to take out processions in Mirpur, Jatrabari, Mohakhali, Tejgaon, Azimpur, Shyampur and Mohammadpur areas.
Abdul Kalam, a rickshaw passenger, suffered injuries when unknown people hurled homemade bombs at the rickshaw at Suritola in Kotwali at 12:30pm.
A procession of the AL lawmakers marched on the Mirpur Road from Sangsad Bhaban while another procession led by Mohammad Nasim MP joined it before staging a street rally at Russell Square amid police cordon.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition Abdul Hamid and AL leaders Mohammad Nasim, Abdul Matin Khasru, Dr Abdul Mannan, Prof Abu Sayeed, Panchanan Biswas, KM Jahangir, Shahjahan Khan and Jubo League leader Mirza Azam addressed the rally.
In a separate rally in front of the AL headquarters, AL leaders said the alliance government in its three-year rule has absolutely failed to run the country. They demanded immediate resignation of the government, otherwise threatened to oustit.
AL presidium members Tofail Ahmed and Motia Chowdhury, among others, addressed the rally.
Different left leaning political parties also observed the 'Black Day' and held ralliesin the city yesterday.
Leaders of the 11-Party alliance, Communist Party Bangladesh (CPB) and JSD- Inu in separate rallies in the capital demanded resignation of the government.
The CPB leaders said the BNP-led coalition government has disgraced the country's liberation war through including war criminals in the cabinet.
The JSD leaders termed the three years of the coalition government as failure.
Our staff correspondent from Chittagong reports the hartal was observed peacefully in the city. The police arrested 207 people in 24 hours ending yesterday morning.
Our Khulna and Comilla correspondents add: the hartal passed off peacefully in both the divisional and district towns without any majorincidents.