(reopens FGN 6)

Today's strike was the first such nationwide hartal called by JI after a special tribunal sentenced the party's assistant secretary general Abdul Quader Mollah to life for crimes like mass killing, rapes and tortures. The "non-partisan" young protestors rallied at Dhaka's Shahbagh Square demanding death penalty to Mollah and grew in numbers subsequently to stage a round the clock sit-in vigil, which entered its 14th day today. But the murder of one their leading comrades, 35-year-old architect Rajib Haidar three days ago, flared up the protests. The Shahbagh protests, initiated primarily by bloggers, also call for boycott of the health, banking and other services being offered by JI-run institutions. BNP apparently was in a dilemma over the Shabagh protest that mounted pressure on it to severe links with JI as the party feared the young protestors were used by the ruling Awami League to carryout their political agenda.