The BNP-led 18 party alliance’s two-day countrywide dawn to dusk general strike begins today in protest of the “killing of Hefazat activists”.
The countrywide hartal started from 6am and will continue till 6pm on Wednesday and will start again on 6am Thursday and will end at 6pm.
In response to the prime minister’s request that rescue operation in Savar be allowed to run smoothly, letting the alliance withdrew a scheduled strike on May 2.
However, bodies of victims trapped under the collapsed Rana Plaza in Savar are still being recovered.
The BNP assistant office secretary Abdul Latif Jony said vehicles working with the Savar rescue operation would be kept out of the purview of the strike.
He also said hospitals, ambulances, restaurants, dispensaries, fire service vehicles, vehicles carrying journalists or newspapers and food vehicles would also not be expected to observe the hartal