This is for those of you who may come here looking for an update, and NOT an attempt to be an “unofficial” correspondent from Chittagong.
Chittagong has not been obviously affected by the state of emergency declared in Bangladesh. All the action has been in the capitol, Dhaka, where police have been clashing with protesters recently. There was a country-wide curfew in place from 11:00pm to 05:00am. We received a call on the evening of the 11th by one of our local co-workers warning us to “not go outside the hotel from 11:00 to 5:00.” Geez, I guess that was the abrupt end to my plan of wandering the streets of Chittagong at 1:00am in search of an open pub. This emergency curfew has been lifted; however, movements are still being restricted throughout the country. We, the foreigners in a far off place, have been assured by our local agent and as well by an ex-military major that we have nothing to worry about.
A brief background, if you haven’t been able to catch the BBC for the past few days: the interim government that is temporarily in charge (a.k.a. the ‘caretaker’ government) is supposed to be a neutral government put in place to allow time for a fair election to take place. However, the opposition parties have declared the interim government is bias towards the incumbent government. From all I’ve heard and read, this is true. Blockades have been set up recently and country-wide strikes, or hartals, have been organised and are scheduled for next week in protest to the upcoming vote. Protests in Dhaka have turned violent and many people have been killed or injured lately in clashes with police. In light of this the leader of the caretaker government, as well as 90% of his administration, stepped down late last night. In an equally as big an announcement the new leader of this interim government has announced that the vote, originally scheduled for Jan 22, is going to be delayed (source: The Daily Star - Bangladesh). This is considered to be a success for the opposition parties, and may mean an end to the planned hartals and blockades.
It is certainly an interesting time to be a bystander in a young country when the population makes a stand for democracy.
For CHC News, this is Robby Cole - Chittagong
