The inhabitants of Dhaka have completely rejected the dawn-to-dusk strike enforced by BNP in protest against alleged ‘rigging’ in Saturday’s Dhaka City Corporation elections.
While visiting several important commercial areas, including the BNP’s headquarters in Palton area, Bangladesh Post correspondents and photo journalists found movement of vehicles as usual throughout the day except for early in the morning.
Routine operation of public buses, train services and river communication were not disrupted at all due to the protest (strike programme) imposed only in Dhaka city by ‘opposition’ BNP. Saturday’s strike is the first such political demonstration against the government in 2020.
Leading political observers said that the residents of the capital city are still on festive mode due to the peaceful ending of the DSCC and DNCC polls. They are enjoying the overwhelming victory of the two ruling party backed mayors.
Though BNP called the shutdown in the name of protesting ‘election engineering’, ordinary people did not pay attention to their claim of vote rigging. They completely overlooked the shutdown programme and termed it a conspiracy against country’s strong foundation of democracy and development.
The shutdown programme that was scheduled to begin at 6am and end at 6pm literally did not seem to have functioned as people ignored the shutdown call. Thousands of people were found going to office as usual while vehicles dominated the main thoroughfares of the city, which appeared very busy at places.
Police sources said there was no report of any violence until the filing of the report at 7:50pm.
Though BNP had called the strike, witnesses said that BNP leaders and activists themselves were not present on the streets. However, huge numbers of law enforcers were deployed at the important city points to ensure the safe and security of public and their properties.
Bangladesh Road Transport Owners' Association operated their vehicles rejecting BNP’s hartal call.
A senior officer of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said the intercity bus service from Dhaka’s Gabtoli, Mohakhali and Jatrabari remained unaffected while intra-city passenger buses are plying across the city as usual.
Many teachers said that presence of students in the city’s educational institutions were also normal.
On the contrary, BNP’s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Sunday claimed that people are “spontaneously observing” the strike.
He claimed that the public have given their support to BNP’s strike rejecting the results of the city elections.
Rizvi along with very few party leaders and activists took position in front of their Nayapaltan party office since early morning. BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir also went to the party headquarters around 9:30am.
They brought out a procession early in the morning in support of the hartal in front of their office and burnt a symbolic Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) there.
Later, they took position at the front gate of the party headquarters and shouted slogans in support of hartal. BNP’s Dhaka north mayoral candidate Ishraque Hossain came to Nayapaltan at 11am and joined the protest.
A huge number of police were deployed near BNP’s Nayapaltan office and adjoining area to avoid unwanted incident. Around 11:45am, police asked the protesting BNP leaders and activists to leave within half an hour. The protesters left within seven minutes, eyewitness said.
Jatiya Oikyafront extended its support to the BNP programme.
Awami League mayoral candidates Atiqul Islam and Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh won the mayoral race of DNSC and DSCC in Saturday’s peaceful, free, fair, and credible election.
