& 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

AL sticks to Saturday's hartal

Staff Correspondent
The main opposition Awami League (AL) will stick to its countrywide hartal on Saturday, the second in four days, despite demands from HSC examinees and their guardians to withdraw the general strike.
Making matters worse for the five lakh examinees, the education board authorities have yet to make any fresh announcement about Saturday's examination.
"We are observing the situation [the opposition's decision about the hartal] and hope the examination will be held as per schedule," Akhtaruzzaman Talukder, a senior official of the Dhaka Education Board's control room, told The Daily Star yesterday evening.
He said, however, that the board officials will sit at a meeting this morning for a final decision. If there is any decision to postpone Saturday's examination, the authorities will make an announcement over radio and television channels today, Talukder said.
The Awami League, meanwhile, has so far made no decision to withdraw the hartal, said AL leader Saber Hossain Chowdhury.
The examinees under the Dhaka Education Board were already victims of a shutdown enforced by the AL in the capital Wednesday in protest of the killing of its city unit leader, advocate Khorshed Alam Bachchu.
The Bangla second paper examination under the board was also postponed due to the strike, as were the Hadith third paper of the Alim examination under the Madrasa Board and exams under the Vocational Education Board across the country.
Saturday's hartal is also to protest the killing of Khorshed Alam Bachchu.
Meanwhile, the main opposition AL could not manage to secure the support of its left 11-party allies for Saturday's hartal. "It is Awami League's hartal and they will observe it... we have no comment about it," said Mujahidul Islam Selim, general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh.
Education Minister M Osman Farruk MP in a statement also urged the opposition to withdraw Saturday's hartal for the sake of the HSC, Alim, Fazil, and Kamil examinees.
The Daily Star yesterday received dozens of phone calls from guardians of HSC examinations wanting to know whether Saturday's examinations are postponed or not. They also demanded that the opposition withdraw the hartal for the sake of the students.
"There is no instance where political parties enforce hartal during public examinations like SSC and HSC," Mohammad Sharifullah, father of an HSC examinee, said.
"Hartal for a day to protest the killing of one of their (Awami League) leaders was acceptable, but this hartal has no justification," Mariom Karim, mother of an examinee, told The Daily Star over the telephone.
Quamrul Hasan, an HSC examinee, phoned The Daily Star office yesterday evening and blasted the opposition for calling the hartal. "They do not care about the thousands of students who are sitting for the most important examination of their lives," he said.
Meanwhile, the National University has postponed all examinations for Saturday and rescheduled them for 2:00pm on May 27 (Friday).