Shawdesh desk:

The countrywide blockade for 48 hours called by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies in the ongoing one-point movement began on Wednesday morning.

The opposition political parties and alliances have been enforcing the countrywide blockade programme to press home their demands for resignation of the ruling Awami League, dissolving the parliament and holding the next general election under a neutral government.

Reports received from different parts of the country said that the blockade left road communication between Dhaka and rest of the country almost snapped, with a rare movement of vehicles on highways.

No bus left divisional cities and distant districts for Dhaka Wednesday morning, the reports said.

No long-route bus left Dhaka from Gabtali Bus Terminal and Mahakhali bus terminals but a few buses left for nearby districts from Saidabad Bus Terminal with few passengers in the morning, New Age correspondents reported from the spots.

Though the number of vehicles on the roads in the capital was much lower than that on the normal days, the number was higher than that on previous blockade days.

BNP brought out processions at different places including Shahbagh, Farmgate, Mirpur and Shanir Akhra areas in the city supporting the blockade.

Hours before beginning the blockade, unidentified people set fire to four buses in three separate places in Mirpur in the capital, according to fire service officials.

Opposition parties and alliances, including Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Ganatantra Mancha, the Liberal Democratic Party, the 12-party alliance, Jatiyatabadi Samamana Jote, the Democratic Left Unity, and the AB Party, are holding street programmes.

Islami Andolon Bangladesh recently extended its support to the movements of opposition parties.

Political parties, including the ruling Awami League, did not agree on holding a dialogue on poll-time administration despite repeated local and international calls to do so.

Most of the main opposition BNP leaders are either in jail or on the run, with their central office under lock and key.

The fifth round of the blockade programme is beginning following a brutal attack by police and ruling party activists at the BNP’s grand rally in Dhaka on October 28.

Senior party leaders, including secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and standing committee members Mirza Abbas and Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, are among those arrested.

BNP observed a general strike a day after the foiled rally before announcing a series of blockades protesting the police attack on its rally and pressing for the resignation of the government ahead of the election.