Resistance all over

The Shahbagh demonstrators bring out a procession in the capital, protesting yesterday's hartal and the desecration of Shaheed Minars and the national flag by religious fanatics on Friday. The photo was taken near Dhaka Club around noon yesterday.Photo: Sk Enamul Haq

The daylong shutdown called by Islamist parties drew little response yesterday with the people spontaneously joining anti-hartal demonstrations across the country.
Almost all business centres, shopping malls, educational institutions, and offices went on with their routine activities defying the hartal call by eight Islamist parties protesting “Friday's police action” and “anti-Islam campaign”.
The hartal day, however, witnessed violence in Manikganj as police, attacked by pickets, opened fire leaving four killed and at least 50 others injured.
The shutdown failed to gain support in any divisional headquarter.
Trains operated on schedule but long-distance buses were off the roads fearing attacks from pickets. Operations of local buses and other vehicles were as usual.
In the capital, the Projonmo Chattar reverberating with slogans as the anti-hartal demonstration started around 9:30am.
The Shahbagh youths on Saturday night called upon the nation to reject the hartal terming it “anti-people” and “anti-state” and a plot to save war criminals.
People of different professions and also school goers started gathering at Shahbagh early in the morning.
A mass procession starting from Projonmo Chattar marched through Matsya Bhaban, Jatiya Press club, Purana Paltan and Dainik Bangla intersection and returned to Shahbagh by the same route.
People regardless of religion, cast and creed, leaders and activists of different student bodies, commuters, pedestrians and office goers joined the youths-led procession.
Meanwhile, pickets set a human hauler ablaze in the city's Jatrabari area in the morning. Around the same time, another group exploded handmade bombs at Janopath intersection, damaging a pickup van of Rapid Action Battalion.
In Rajshahi, locals chased a group of Islami Chhatra Shibir men who had tried to torch a vehicle.
The demonstrators of Ekattur Mancho marched through different roads in Rajshahi with national flags. They chanted slogans demanding death penalty for war criminals and ban on Jamaat-Shibir.
In Rangpur, youths brought out a mass procession and paraded through the main streets demanding ban on Jamaat-e-Islami and execution of war criminals.
Sharfuddin Ahmed Jhantu, mayor of Rangpur City Corporation, led another procession rejecting the hartal.
Anti-hartal processions were also brought in Chandpur, Sylhet, Brahmanbaria, Noakhali and Joypurhat.
PROJONMO CHATTAR
After the procession, the activists took position at the Shahbagh intersection like previous days and stayed there till night.
People from all walks of life gathered at the venue wholeheartedly to express solidarity.
The mass signature campaign, which began on February 22, continued yesterday. At 10:00pm yesterday, when the campaign ended for the night, more 80,000 signatures have already been collected.
Imran H Sarkar, a key organiser of the movement, said if Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman was not arrested immediately, the Shahbagh youths will announce tougher programme from today's Mirpur rally to be started at 3:00pm.
The Shahbagh movement that started on February 5, hours after the Jamaat leader Quader Mollah was sentenced to life in prison, for as passed its 20th consecutive day yesterday.