Sources: The New Straits Times and Bangladesh public holidays. Earlier this morning, the government of Bangladesh declared a one-off public holiday for today, Thursday, August 23, 2007. Note that, as weekends are still Friday-Saturday in Bangladesh, this declaration results in a 3-day weekend.This is viewed as an attempt to cool tensions that have followed the curfew recently imposed in the capital Dhaka, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Chittagong, Barisal, and Khulna, as well as the closings of all colleges and universities in these six cities. In addition, mobile phone operators have been asked to shut down their networks until further notice (the AFP and CBS confirm that most mobile phones have stopped working).
Note that although today's Daily Star (Bangladesh's main newspaper) does not mention this one-off public holiday either on their front page, or in the article devoted to the updated curfew, it has been confirmed by other news sources such as the AFP (Agence France Presse) and Xinhua (Chinese News Service).
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