Thousands of police and paramilitary troops patrolled the capital yesterday on the second day of a general strike called to protest a grenade attack on an opposition political rally that killed 20 people and wounded hundreds.
Schools and shops remained closed and most traffic halted across Bangladesh because of the strike called by the country's main opposition Awami League and several leftist parties.
Train services were disrupted throughout the country as demonstrators squatted on railroads or cut tracks, spokesman for Bangladesh Railways Mosta-e-Jamil said.
No clashes were immediately reported yesterday.
But strike-related violence between police and protesters left more than 300 people injured since Monday, said the Ittefaq daily. Nearly 100 demonstrators were detained on the first day of the two-day strike on Tuesday, a police official said on condition of anonymity.
Fearing renewed violence, authorities ordered nearly 7,000 police and paramilitary troops to patrol the capital, Dhaka.
In Dhaka, the streets were empty of cars and buses, with many commuters resorting to rickshaws that were allowed to operate.
A group calling itself Hikmatul Zihad claimed responsibility for the attack in an e-mail message to the Prothom Alo newspaper and threatened further attacks against Hasina.
"Don't think that Sheikh Hasina is out of danger. We missed our previous chance ... We are coming and this time we will accomplish our target within seven days," the e-mail said, according to the Dhaka-based daily's chief reporter, Probash Amin.
The newspaper said it had informed police investigators about the message.
No other details were immediately available.
Hasina, who was unharmed, has blamed Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's administration for the attack. The government has denied involvement.
The Awami League has shortened yesterday's strike to half a day to allow people to attend the funeral of a senior opposition leader, spokesman Abdul Jalil said.
Ivy Rahman, who lost her legs in the grenade attack, died Tuesday, doctors and her family said.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS