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Worries pile up for people

Blockade goes on; fresh 72-hour hartal from today

Staff Correspondent
Life has already been difficult enough due to hartals ruining all the work days in the last two weeks on top of a prolonged blockade. Now they have to put up with another 72-hour shutdown from 6:00am today.
Struggling to make up for the days lost, ordinary people say such programmes have nothing to do with their wellbeing, and they want an immediate solution to the political impasse.
"The blockade and hartal are being forced upon us. We don't want this. We want peace," Shahnaz Ahmed, a student of Ideal Law College, said after the BNP-led alliance yesterday called the fresh shutdown.
People have to go out to reach their workplaces but they remain gripped by fear of arson and petrol bombs, she added. "It can't go on like this."
Mizanur Rahman, a private service holder, said the opposition has to give up violent politics. On the other hand, the government has to soften its stance and find out a solution through dialogue. Like Mizanur and Shahnaz, people in general and the international community are calling for restraint as the blockade violence has already claimed 70 lives. At least a thousand more were injured, mostly in arson.
SSC examinees and their parents are among the worst victims, as the exam schedule has collapsed in frequent shutdowns.
"Now our concern is if exam will be held tomorrow, not that how today's exam went,” Shirin Akhter,
homemaker and mother of an SSC examinee, told The Daily Star.
Nobody is taking people's sufferings into account, she said.
"Politics of conflict and violence is pushing the nation backwards," said Shirin, also a political science graduate.
Her daughter Shoily Moni, a student of Holy Cross Girls' School, said frequent changes in exam schedules were seriously hampering her preparations.
Apart from education, the economy is bleeding profusely. The country's
top chambers estimate business has incurred a loss of Tk 2,277 crore a day since the blockade started on January 6.
Farmers are failing to sell their produce while sufferings of low-income groups are far more than they can bear.
Rabiul Islam, 25, a rickshaw puller, whose earnings have dwindled from nearly Tk 700 to less than Tk 300 a day, says he does not bother about who is in power or in the opposition. All he wants is peace.
Shafiq Gazi, a 60-year-old vendor
in the city's Tejgaon area, said his sales now have declined from Tk 8,000 toTk 2,500 a day.
MA Naser, owner of a shoe store in Farmgate area of the capital, said hartal has turned too violent these days.
"Hartal was always a means of protest but it was never like this."
Both Shafique and Naser say the two leaders - Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia - have to sit for dialogue for a solution, but the violence must end immediately.
SSC EXAMS DEFERRED - PAGE 16