US embassy cable - 05DHAKA514

UNCLAS DHAKA 000514 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, BG 
SUBJECT: STRIKE SITREP 
 
 
1. (SBU) After a day's pause, the Awami League renewed its 
hartal (strike) program with a dawn-to-dusk hartal on 
February 3.  With a comparatively heavier police presence, 
observers as of 1600 local report slightly more rickshaws and 
motor vehicles on Dhaka streets compared to the previous 
program but that nearly all of Dhaka's shops are closed. 
 
2. (SBU) By mid morning, one car had been burnt and several 
AL women protesters had been arrested, but there have been 
few large AL street demonstrations and no injuries reported. 
As of 1300 local, the only fatality was a police officer who 
suffered an apparent heart attack when he aided the 
extinguishing of the car fire. 
 
3. (SBU) Awami League Member of Parliament Muhammad Faruk 
Khan told us that the hartal was widely observed and 
therefore a "success."  Reports from around the country are 
mixed, with the hartal widely observed in the AL stronghold 
of Bandarban, located in east Bangladesh, but loosely 
observed elsewhere. 
 
4. (SBU)  The Awami League plans a 36 hour hartal from dawn 
February 5 to dusk February 6. Their leftist partners, who 
had announced previously they would not participate out of 
respect for SAARC, have not yet announced whether they will 
now participate but have said they would hold public 
demonstrations in support. 
THOMAS