Opposition strike in Bangladesh over equal status for women

Madrasa students carrying sticks in their hands took position in the Dhaka city and other places supporting the dawn-to-dusk countrywide hartal, called by Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ), an Islamist group along with other Islamists outfits, in protest the proposed National Women Development Policy 2011. Several Kaomi Madrasa-based organizations, including Hefazat-e-Islam, a newly emerging Islamist outfit, lent their support to the general strike. Police picked up more than 100 Madrasa students at different parts of the capital today during the nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal. The coalition of Islamist clerics fronting the banner of Islamic Law Implementation Committee called the countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal on March 8 to protest a new women policy, Education Policy and a High Court verdict banning ‘fatwa’