Jamaat makes a farce over 48-hr hartal

The Jamaat-e-Islami yesterday deferred by a day the 48-hour hartal it called for August 12-13, leaving the Eid holidaymakers struggling again to reschedule their return trip.
The two-day shutdown will now start on August 13.
On August 1, the Jamaat called the hartal in protest against the High Court verdict cancelling its registration with the Election Commission.
The sudden call for hartal at the end of Ramadan threw into uncertainty millions of home-goers' travel plans, as many of them had already bought their return tickets. This latest announcement makes things even worse.
As soon as the hartal was deferred, people went into a scurry for return tickets for either August 11 or August 14-15.
If the Eid takes place on August 10, the next day will also be a government holiday. Therefore, many people did not buy return tickets for August 11.
Now they have no alternative to managing return tickets for August 11. Those who cannot do so will have severe difficulties in getting tickets for August 14-15.
In a press release last night, the Jamaat said it had deferred the hartal so that people could return to their workplaces in time.
The party did not, however, clarify how several million people, who are likely to leave the capital, can return in the two days between the Eid and the shutdown.
Balai Chandra Sarker, director (operations) of Hanif Enterprise, a transport company, told The Daily Star that around 20 lakh people leave Dhaka by road in the last two to three days ahead of Eid.
Many others leave the capital earlier to celebrate the Eid with their near and dear ones at their village homes.
A number of people called The Daily Star last night to express their resentment over the hartal.
“After much suffering, my brother managed return tickets for August 14. He has just called me to say that he was visiting different bus counters but could not reschedule the return trip,” said Mizanur Rahman, a media official who wants to return to Dhaka from Bogra.
Another holidaymaker, Ali Sharif, said staff at different bus counters had informed him that return tickets for August 14-15 were already sold out.
Those who plan to make return trips by railways or waterways might not face that much difficulty if trains and water vessels run smoothly defying the hartal.