Strike staged in Bangladesh to protest top opposition leader's sentence

A dawn-to-dusk strike by the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party in protest against the death sentence handed over to its leader for war crimes was observed Thursday without any major incident of violence.

Jamaat, in a press release published on its website Wednesday, made the announcement of the dawn-to-dusk strike starting from 6:00 a.m. (local time) on Thursday.

It also demanded the release of its leader.

The announcement of the strike came shortly after a four-member Appellate Division bench of the Bangladesh Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, on Wednesday dismissed the review petitions of Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, secretary general of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party, and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, a leader of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), paving way for execution of the key opposition leaders.

Though Jamaat called the strike, its key ally BNP is yet to make any reaction to the verdict that upheld its leader's death penalty for war crimes.

Security has been beefed up in capital Dhaka since Wednesday night when paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) forces were been deployed at different strategic points.

Law enforcers were on strict vigil across the country to thwart any attempt to create trouble.

The traffic on short routes in and around Dhaka was almost regular. But the number of passenger journeys has fallen for long route bus operators, leaving scores of transport workers to pass idle time at bus stations.

Pro-liberation youths' platform Gonojagoron Moncho and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling Bangladeshi Awami League party and its associate bodies Thursday brought out processions in different parts of the city and elsewhere in the country, denouncing the countrywide dawn-to-dusk strike and demanding quick execution of the convicts.

No major incidents have so far been reported. Enditem