Bangladeshi opposition calls 36-hour strike from Wednesday

Bangladesh's main opposition on Monday called a nationwide dawn-to-dusk 36-hour non-stop strike form Wednesday demanding the release of its leaders and activists detained in a recent police raid on its headquarters.Acting Secretary General of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced the strike at a press briefing in the party's headquarters, saying the strike also aims at protesting what it said the government's "corruption, misrule, oppression and recent genocide."A total of 154 main opposition men including dozens of leaders, who were detained during the raid on the BNP headquarters on March 11 night, were sent to jail last week in connection with two assault cases against them.Terming the cases as "false and fabricated," Alamgir Monday again demanded unconditional release of the party's leaders and activists.Police raided BNP headquarters shortly after a rally of the main opposition alliance in protest against scores of riots deaths was foiled following a number of handmade bomb explosions on March 11 evening.Nearly 100 people including several police men and dozens of opposition men were killed and hundreds of others injured in weeks of riots erupted soon after a tribunal awarded death sentence to a top leader of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party, a key ally in Khaleda's 18-party alliance, for war crimes in 1971 on Feb. 28.Leaders of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 15-party grand alliance said former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's BNP is supporting anarchy to save the war criminals and hinder the development of the country.