The High Court on Sunday asked government to take actions to stop violence and subversive acts in the name of hartal and blockade.

The court also issued a rule asking for explanation as to why necessary measures should not be taken in this connection.

A High Court bench comprising Justice Kazi Reja-Ul Haque and Justice Abu Taher Mohammad Saifur Rahman passed the order after a primary hearing held over a writ petition of Shahinur Islam Shahin and Shafiul Alam. 

It also asked the government to ensure a violence-free environment for the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinees and take stern actions against those who have been creating impediment towards holding the ongoing SCC and its equivalent examinations.

Shafiul Alam Khan Baku, president of the managing committee Ispahani High School, Keraniganj filed a petition seeking steps for holding the examinations exams in a violence-free environment while Shahinur Islam Shaheen, a resident of Keraniganj, filed the another petition seeking an end to violence.

Advocate Abdul Matin Khasru, Advocate Abdul Baset Majumdar and SM Rezaul Karim stood for the petitioners.

Some 162 people have been made respondents to the two petitions. Secretaries for Home, Law, Education, Foreign Ministries, IGP, DG RAB DG BGB, all divisional Police Commissioners, DCs and SPs of all the districts, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Bikalpa Dhara president B Chowdhury, LDP leader Oli Ahmed, Major General Ibrahim, were among the respondents.

Besides, the court also issued a rule asking the government to explain as to why hartal and blockade programmes during the ongoing SSC and its equivalent examinations should not be declared illegal and why the government should not be directed to take necessary steps in this regard.

Meanwhile, the HC also issued a separate rule asking the government to explain as to why BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and its alliance leaders would not be directed to provide compensations to victims of hartal and blockade programmes.

The directives came on the first day of the fresh 72-hour hartal called by the BNP-led 20-party alliance alongside an indefinite transport blockade.