Hartal, again
Ending all hope for a break from continuous hartals, the BNP-led 20-party alliance yesterday called for a 48-hour nationwide shutdown from 6:00am today.
The announcement of hartal put around 12 lakh candidates of HSC and equivalent examinations in a spot of bother. While parents were concerned about the safety of their kids going to exam halls amid hartals, the education minister was adamant about holding the tests during the strike.
Dhaka and Chittagong cities would, however, be out of the purview of the hartal as polls to the city corporations were scheduled for April 28, said a BNP press release signed by its Joint Secretary General Barkat Ullah Bulu yesterday afternoon.
The party enforced the hartal to press home various demands, including "safe and unhurt return" of missing BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed and other opposition men.
Mohiuddin Molla, a parent of an HSC examinee of the city's Shahinbagh, said, "Although the education minister has announced that the exams will take place as per schedule even if hartal coincides with it. But we will be worried about sending our children to exam centres amid hartals."
Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and its equivalent examinations would begin on April 1. The government has already postponed the tests for April 26, 27, and 28 due to the elections to Dhaka, Chittagong city corporations.
After a meeting with law enforcers on law and order during the exams, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid yesterday said they have completed all preparations for holding the exams as per schedule.
On top of the ongoing countrywide blockade since January 6, the BNP-led combine had been enforcing hartal on almost every weekday since February 1. But, for the first time since then, it had not called for hartal yesterday (Sunday), raising speculation that there could be a break from the strike.
According to BNP insiders close to party chief Khaleda Zia, the alliance enforced fresh hartal because a section of party high-ups thought that the government would increase its "repression and harassment" on opposition men if they leave the "battleground".
"The BNP chief is still at her Gulshan office and she along with her close associates think there is no reason behind her stay there without continuing tougher programmes like hartal," said a BNP leader close to Khaleda.
"The party and its men might have to pay dearly if BNP did not continue putting pressure on the government and that hartal was the best tool so far," said a joint convener of Dhaka city BNP, wishing not to be named.
Meanwhile, the education minister said they had decided to postpone the exams on April 26, 27, and 28 following a request from the Election Commission.
"New dates will be announced later," Nahid said at a briefing after the meeting with law enforcers at the Secretariat.
He reiterated that the HSC and equivalent exams would begin on April 1 as scheduled.
"I have talked to parents during the SSC exams and they told me that the exams must be held on time," he said. Moreover, hartals or blockades were not effective, he added.
It would take a long time to complete if the HSC tests were taken on weekends, like that of the SSC exams, said the minister. He urged the BNP not to enforce any hartal during the exams.
The BNP-led alliance's hartal wreaked havoc on the SSC exam schedule. Not a single written test could be held on scheduled dates.
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