One of the remarkable things about AL is the iron hand with which it is dealing with protestors of ANY kind. When the opponents try to get out of their party or organization offices to take part in a rally, no matter how peaceful it might have been intended to be, the Police has been playing their devoted roles in breaking them up and inciting arrests, so to speak. It happened last week when BNP tried to go out to protest the dismissal of the Caretaker Government system (don't confuse yourself, but it was put in place by AL in the first place by means of rigorous protests which had the country in a standstill for a looong time back then) which takes care of holding elections. Now, prior to this, the caretaker government held a brief stint in which it tried to bring forward corruption charges against the leading politicians from both camps. There has been a lot of talk about it on the TV talk shows and the newspapers, but all in all we've managed to put our apathetic hats on for the most part.

Some people, didn't care for that hat last sunday (03/07/2011), when the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports (NCPOGMR) called a strike to protest the deal thats in the making with ConocoPhilips to do some offshore drilling for gas which sleeps underneath us. Bloggers of Bangladesh got out, tearing up their hats, and under the sun and held before them long cloth banners which told of their protest. And the police, faithful to their leaders and not the tax-paying citizens came out piously to break them up and make some arrests. Law and Order, Gentlemen, has been ... er... restored. Educators and bloggers, and non-political citizens who are concerned are now prisoned.

Coming up, is a 4 day strike called by the bigger guns, the political and shaky BNP and Jamaat. I wonder, after their last attempt at a strike was so vividly broken down by the police, what they are planning to redeem themselves. Kinda scary, and at the same time soap-opera-exciting.

That what this is... a political soap opera.

Related:
Interview of an activist of NCPOGMR
Dinmajur Blog
Half Day Hartal (Prothom Alo)
The Wall Street Journal Picks up this story
Our Students in Sweden Protest for the Protestors