A six-hour strike called by a leftist citizens' group protesting a government decision to lease three offshore gas blocks to foreign companies partially disrupted business activity Monday in the Bangladesh capital.The demonstrators urged the government to reverse its decision to lease the gas blocks allowing foreign companies to export the minerals after extraction.
"We called the strike to protect present and future generations of Bangladesh as we are presently facing a severe gas crisis. We don't have gas to export," a spokesman of the committee, Sheikh Mohammed Shaheedullah, said at a rally in Dhaka.
It was the first political strike called by any group since the Awami League-led alliance government assumed office in January. Most businesses, banks, private and public offices remained open during the shutdown. Two left-leaning political parties - the Communist Party of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal - in separate statements on Sunday asked their supporters to join the strike.
The government on August 24 approved offshore oil and gas exploration deals with the US company ConocoPhillips and Ireland's Tullow Oil Ltd in three sea blocks in the Bay of Bengal. Critics say a provision in the deals allows the foreign companies to export up to 80 per cent of extracted gas, which constitutes a threat to the energy security of Bangladesh. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party said it supported the protestors.