In Bangladesh, main opposition party BNP on Friday called for another 72-hour nationwide shut down from Sunday, stepping up its nearly two-month-old tirade against the government.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led 20 party alliance has been protesting and staging shutdowns since January 6 to mark the first anniversary of the controversial polls the BNP's arch-rival Awami League won.
The alliance demands fresh elections under a non-party caretaker administration. The fresh shut down has been announced hours after the five-day 'hartal' by the alliance ended this morning.
According to a statement by BNP Joint Secretary General Salauddin Ahmed in Dhaka,the shutdown will begin at 6:00am Sunday and will continue till 6:00am Wednesday.
Nearly 100 people have died in the political violence since the protests began in early January. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the non-stop agitation has caused the country nearly USD 15.5 billion.
Bangladesh, protests against the killing of US-based writer-blogger are continuing. Students organisations, cultural platforms, journalists, writers, teachers and bloggers have taken to the streets at various places demanding the immediate arrest of the killers. They have said the attack was aimed at freedom of speech and democracy.
The Ganojagran Mancha carrying out a sit-in at Shahbhag have said they will not leave the streets until the attackers are arrested. Student’s Federation took out a torch procession last night at Dhaka University. A general strike has been called on Monday by the Progressive Students Front in protest against the killing. Meanwhile the U.K has joined US in strongly condemning the attack.
Police have yet to establish the identity of the killers. RAB Legal and Media Wing Deputy Director Major Rumman Mahmud said Avijit was killed in a planned way. Based on previous incidents and analysing the method of killing by machete-wielding professional killers, the police are investigating radical militant groups's links to the murder.
The responsibility for the crime was claimed by a twitter account allegedly by Ansar-e-Bangla7, a group believed to be an Islamist outfit. But with a lot of traffic on the web supporting the murder, police and intelligence agencies are not clear as to which Islamist group was possibly responsible for the killing.
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