Shawdesh desk:

Giving a pause for a day after its 48-hour hartal, Bangladesh Nationalist Party, its allies in the ongoing movement, and Jamaat will enforce a 48-hour fresh road-rail-waterway blockade across the country starting from Wednesday morning to protest at the schedule for the next national election announced by the Election Commission.

Party senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi came up with the announcement at a virtual press briefing on Monday afternoon. It will be the sixth phase of the blockade programme of the opposition parties since October 31.

He said that the blockade would begin at 6:00am on Wednesday and end at 6:00m on Friday.

Rizvi said that the blockade was also meant for mounting pressure on the government to quit, hold the next election under a non-party neutral government and release party leaders and activists, including its secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

He said that other opposition parties, who had long been carrying out the simultaneous movement with BNP, would also observe similar programmes.

Earlier, BNP and some other parties enforced a 48-hour countrywide shutdown from Sunday and it will end at 6:00m on Tuesday.

Rizvi thanked the country’s people and the opposition leaders and activists for making their hartal programme a success.

The opposition parties observed blockades in five phases to mount pressure on the Awami League government to quit power and hold the next election under a non-partisan administration.

They also observed a nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal on October 29 in protest against the attacks on BNP’s grand rally at Nayapaltan that ended amid the incidents of torching vehicles and clashes, leaving three people dead.

Half an hour into the start of BNP’s much-talked-about grand rally at Nayapaltan on October 28, BNP leaders and workers locked in a clash with the ruling party activists and police at Kakrail. Soon violent clashes spread around Nayapaltan, foiling the rally midway.