AL's 8-hour Hartal today

The strike, the second in a month called by the AL, coincides with tabling of the national budget in the parliament that will resume its session at 3.00pm this afternoon.

The AL called the last hartal on May 13 to protest the reinstatement of a convict in the Bangabandhu murder case and an accused in jail killing case in government service.

The decision to call the hartal today came from an impromptu joint meeting of the AL presidiumand the AL secretariat held at the party's Dhanmondi office on Tuesday night.

AL Organising Secretary Saber Hossain Chowdhury, however, said the hartal call had nothing to do with the budget session of the parliament and hinted at the AL's launching a separate movement, should the government present an anti-people budget.

The hartal call came on the heels of the recent killing of a former AL lawmaker and Natore district unit leader Momtaz Uddin Ahmed and an attack on former lawmaker and whip Mujibul Haq in Comilla.

The AL is not attending today's budget session.

Sheikh Hasina, the party president, is scheduled to return home on June 14 and chair a meeting of the AL parliamentary party to decide whether or not to join the rest of the budget session.

The AL held a workers' meeting at its Bangabandhu Avenue central office last night to prepare for the hartal today.

Urging people to make the hartal a success, AL General Secretary Abdul Jalil in a statement yesterday said people were reeling under poor governance of the alliance government and claimed that 15 people were killed and 10 women raped everyday on an average across the country.

The government meanwhile decided to deploy more than 4,000 policemen, members of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and Armed Police Battalion (APBn) to ensure peace in the metropolis.

Twelve platoons of BDR and 18 platoons of APBn will be on alert to thwart any untoward incident.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Ashraful Huda held a meeting with police officials at the Rajarbagh Telecom auditorium yesterday and issued directives to police high-ups.