Bangladeshi Islamists strike over equality law

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DHAKA – Riot police patrolled the streets of the Bangladeshi capital on Monday as a strike called by Islamic parties to protest a proposed law favouring female equality brought much of the country to a halt.
The parties, known as the Islamic Law Implementation Committee, called the strike to protest against the government’s move to pass laws ensuring equal property and inheritance rights for women in the Muslim-majority country.
Most shops, businesses and schools in Dhaka were shut and major roads in and around the capital were almost deserted. A senior Dhaka police officer said around 10,000 police had been deployed in the capital.
“Security is tight to prevent any violence. We have sufficient deployment across the capital. Barring a few stray incidents, things are peaceful,” Dhaka police commissioner Benazir Ahmed said.
Wearing skullcaps and carrying sticks, several hundred students of Islamic schools or madrassas marched through Dhaka’s Mohammadpur area, chanting slogans against the planned policy, local police chief Mahmudul Islam said.
On Sunday a madrassa student was killed in the southwestern city of Jessore after police opened fire on 500 protesters, who were demanding the government backtrack on the policy.
At least a dozen others including six police officers were injured in Sunday’s violence, police said, adding three officers were in serious condition after being attacked with bamboo sticks.
Small Islamic groups led by firebrand cleric and ex-lawmaker Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini have been staging sporadic protests since the government announced its plan on March 7, arguing that it goes against the Quran, Islam’s holy book.
Bangladesh, whose population is 90 percent Muslim, has a secular legal system but in matters related to inheritance and marriage Muslims follow sharia law.
Sharia as practised in Bangladesh’s inheritance law generally stipulates that a woman would inherit half of what her brother gets. Women’s groups have long protested against the disparity and demanded equal rights.