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3-day blockade from Monday

BNP standing committee decides

SHAKHAWAT LITON and RASHIDUL HASAN
The BNP last night decided to go for a three-day blockade of roads, rail and waterways from Monday to force the government to concede the demand for a non-party polls-time government.
An announcement to that effect will come after BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's meeting with 18-party leaders at her Gulshan office tonight.
The BNP standing committee, highest policymaking body of the main opposition party, also decided to stage "all-out agitation" to foil any move by the Election Commission to declare election schedule.
There was, however, no formal briefing from the BNP about the meeting.
Two standing committee members told The Daily Star about the decisions taken at the meeting, which lasted for around an hour.
The BNP chief and most of her party's policymakers observed the dialogue initiative by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was "nothing but a drama to get political mileage".
"The government was behind the leak of the phone conversation [between Hasina and Khaleda] and it proves the whole process of dialogue was the prime minister's pre-planned drama," a BNP standing committee member quoted Khaleda as saying.
"We believe the dialogue is a dead issue now," said another policymaker wishing not to be named.
After November 10, the opposition alliance may lay siege to the Prime Minister's Office, secretariat and Election Commission.
As per the standing committee decisions, the 18-party will hold protest rallies in the capital and at all divisional, district and upazila headquarters on November 2 [Saturday].
The decisions came hours after the 60-hour hartal of the BNP-led 18-party alliance ended yesterday evening.
During the nationwide shutdown, political violence spread even to the remotest parts of the country in an unprecedented way, raising public safety concerns.
To make sure that the hartal is strictly enforced, the opposition men took to the streets at the district and upazila levels. They clashed with police and the ruling Awami League men in more than 30 districts.
The violence left at least 14 people dead, all outside the capital. Unlike in the past, no major incidents of violence took place in the capital.
Security experts fear further violence apprehending more such hartals in the coming days.
The fear seems justified. Justified because "satisfied" over the opposition men's strong presence in the remote areas to enforce the hartal, the BNP high command is now planning to bank on its grassroots strength to intensify its agitation in the weeks ahead.
"Through their unprecedented participation in the hartal, people of all walks life have shown that they staged an uprising against the government," BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told a post-hartal press briefing at the party's Nayapaltan headquarters.
"We wanted to take the agitation over to district and upazila levels and we succeeded in it. We are now confident that we will be able to enforce successfully any tougher agitation in the coming days relying on the grassroots leaders and activists," said Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, a senior BNP leader.
Asked about the violence, Mosharraf expressed his concern but blamed the ruling party and law enforcers for it.
Some BNP policymakers, however, are worried about the violent protest by the Jamaat-Shibir men and they fear that more such violence will take place in the next agitation programmes.
Jamaat-Shibir men took to the streets with their own agenda of foiling the war crimes trial, alongside the opposition demand for installation of a non-partisan government.
During the shutdown, they returned with their marked brutality like cutting tendons and attacking minority community people in some areas.
Why keep them then? A senior BNP leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, has an answer.
“It is not possible for us to keep Jamaat away from our agitation programmes now as we need them to put pressure on the government to realise our demand," he said.
Analysing the last three days' violence, M Hafizuddin Khan, a former adviser to the caretaker government, said the agitation the AL-led opposition parties waged against the then BNP government in 1995 was also violent. But that time the movement was confined mainly to the capital and some divisional headquarters.
" But the way the violence took place in remotest areas [this time] is unprecedented. I've never seen such political agitation in the past," he told The Daily Star. "It is very alarming and if the trend continues, it may be difficult for the law enforcement agencies to contain the situation. ”
Former police boss ASM Shajahan, also an exadviser to a caretaker government, echoed his view.
"Violence has been decentralised which appears to be a major public security concerns in remote areas. Police forces have to be more cautious and act fast to combat such decentralised political violence," he told this newspaper yesterday.
"But it would be difficult for the law enforcers if the violence spreads further in the remote areas," he feared.
A district police boss explained their difficulties in containing such violence. He said police force can act fast in the capital and divisional headquarters.
“It is true that we cannot move quickly if miscreants carry out violence at upazila or union levels, due to shortage of manpower and vehicles. Poor communication system is another obstacle," said Mirajuddin Ahmed, superintendent of police in Pabna.
Taking this advantage, he added, miscreants changed their strategy and chose to unleash violence in remote areas.
Contacted, Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmood Khandker said his forces had also changed strategy to contain violence. “We are determined to ensure people's safety by thwarting any kind of strategy of miscreants."
Meanwhile, unidentified people blasted two cocktails in front of the gate of Mirza Fakhrul Islam's LIttara house around 8:45pm yesterday, said Yunus Ali, Fakhrul's personal secretary.
Fakhrul was not home at the time, Yunus added.
No one was hurt in the incident.
Nisharul Arif, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Uttara division), said he heard about the incident and assigned his forces to investigate it.
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