18-party to call hartal for Apr 17-18

The national standing committee of BNP, the highest policymaking body of the main opposition, last night decided to call another two-day countrywide hartal from April 17 protesting “wholesale arrest” of its leaders.
The call for hartal would be made official after discussion with other components of the 18-party opposition alliance.
The committee yesterday decided in principle to go for a “non-cooperation movement” and blockades across the country if the party's top leaders were not granted bail on their April 21 court day.
The meeting also decided to stage a huge showdown on Pahela Baishakh (Sunday) in the capital to counter Gonojagoron Manch's movement, meeting sources said.
These decisions were made in the nearly two-hour-long meeting of the standing committee with opposition leader Khaleda Zia in the chair at her Gulshan office.
Khaleda is scheduled to sit with leaders of BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance tonight to finalise the decisions.
Meeting sources told The Daily Star that Khaleda was extremely unhappy as many BNP leaders, including BNP acting secretary general and three standing committee members, have been sent to jail by courts on April 7.
She asked her party leaders to be prepared for “tackling any kind of situation in the days to come”.
There was no formal press briefing after the standing committee meeting last night and the leaders refused to go on record.