State of Emergency has been declared, stops TV news, CA quits. Curfew imposed

A state of emergency, imposed by President Iajuddin Ahmed, sends thousands of cars and other vehicles rushing headlong to their destinations in Dhaka Thursday night.

President Iajuddin Ahmed said Thursday night that he was quitting as head of the caretaker government and putting "most senior" adviser in charge. He did not however name former judge Fazlul Haque, who is at the top of the list of advisers. But later the state-run BTV confirmed his name. In a 14-minute speech, he admitted his role as caretaker chief "divided the nation".

Nine advisers to his caretaker government meanwhile resigned Thursday night, BTV said. It was not clear whether they were protesting or just making way for the new chief adviser to form his new cabinet.

Iajuddin in his speech also admitted an election without the participation of all political parties would not be acceptable at home and abroad.

Iajuddin said it would be impossible to hold elections under the circumstances and would require time to prepare for people to be able to take part.

He said he hoped "a reconstituted advisory council" would consult all parties and try to hold elections in shortest possible time.

Sheikh Hasina in instant reactions said the nation had lost so much because of Iajuddin Ahmed's delayed response. "Mr Iajuddin realised but so late that the country has lost so much."

She said the Awami League would now wait and see how the reconstitution of the caretaker government went ahead and then decide on its future course of action.

She said she called an emergency meeting of her senior party leaders Friday.

Earlier at around 7pm, Iajuddin signed an order declaring a state of emergency in Bangladesh. State-controlled BTV and the police said a curfew has been imposed for Dhaka, other metropolitan cities and all district towns from 11pm to 5am every day until a new order is issued. Traffic was snarled Thursday evening in most cities as news spread by word of mouth and mobile phone news service. Panicked people in their rush for home caused huge traffic chaos throughout the capital.

In a major post-emergency decision, the government has ordered all satellite-based private television channels to stop broadcasting news programmes and bulletins and all current affairs talk shows. Top TV executives said that the government's principal information officer (PIO) made "the Bangabhaban decision" known to their newsrooms at around 8pm. They said they had already stopped all news programmes.

another fall.i dont understand where they want to take our country. if they do like this then one day bush will target to our country hehe. Eros bro thanks for that info.Akhon uchit khaleda ar sekh hasin r bari te curfew dea jate orai na ber hote pare kono din.

thnx eros mamu...bd-te phone koira shunchilam curfew-r kotha...since then i was wondering wtf is going on...ekhon bujhlam...thnx again...

Da most shockin part was ... No news on Any Bangladeshi Channel eXcept BTV ... Wut da hell was dat ?!?!

hmm feeling sory for AWL

lol... asmani wat r u thinking!!! feel sory for BNP-Jamat Jot

lol feeling sorry for them too to an extent.

Thanks ero shona baby for the info.. But the worse thing is we can do nothing about it =(

obviously itz da worse decision ever taken by any BD govt ........ speciall da NEWS part ........ how can we say ---- BD is a democratic country NOW ? I must say " YES UDDIN " abuses His Power once again..... SHAME SHAME SHAME on YAJUDDIN

I think the situation is partly OK now. here is the latest development so far...

Former Bangladesh Bank governor Fakhruddin Ahmed is being named as the new chief of the caretaker government.

The police Friday lifted a late night-to-early morning curfew.

Army chief & NSI head has been removed from his post, as he was appointed by the former BNP lead Govt.

About the news broadcasting by pvt channels still same. there is no announcement when the restriction will be pull off.