Strike cripples life in Bangladesh

By Sheuli Akter
DHAKA, Oct. 26 (NsNewsWire) — A one-day strike by a coalition of several Islamist parties demanding arrest of a sacked minister threw normal life out of gear across Bangladesh Sunday.
Traffic on the capital Dhaka streets remained thin as most private vehicles were kept indoors.
Most shops and other business establishments also downed their shutters and motorized vehicles were rare on the usually-clogged city streets.
So far no untoward incident has been reported in any part of the country.
The coalition of Islamist parties — Khilafat Majlish, Islamic Party, Khilafat-e Islam, Islami Oikya Jote, Nejam-e Islam, Muslim League and Hefajat-e Islam, most of whom are components of ex-Pirme Minister Khaleda Zia’s 20-party opposition combine, Wednesday called the nationwide dawn-to-dusk strike for Sunday as their demand to arrest the sacked minister remained unfulfilled.
Bangladeshi Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Abdul Latif Siddique was removed on Oct. 16 from the cabinet for his derogatory comments.
Siddique’s comments on annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, Tablighi Jamaat (an Islamic religious movement) and expatiate Bangladeshis in New York have sparked huge protests in Bangladesh and in the United States.