BNP-led 18-party alliance has called off Sunday's hartal ahead of cyclone storm Mahasen.
Shamsuzzaman Dudu, an adviser to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, made the announcement at a press briefing at the party's Nayapaltan office on Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier, in the morning Dudu announced a nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal for May 19, protesting the "undemocratic practices" of the government.
Cyclone Mahasen is heading towards Bangladesh over the Bay of Bengal.
Sources said the decision for a general shutdown came after the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) denied BNP permission to hold a prescheduled rally in front of the party office on Wednesday.This was the third time in a week that the opposition was forced to abandon its prescheduled rallies. Terming such attitude “undemocratic”, BNP demanded resignation of the government and restoration of the caretaker government system.
Earlier, the party had announced a rally on May 7 but had to back off because of a police ban on all sorts of public meetings and rallies.
Later, it announced another rally on May 13 which met the same fate. Now, for the third time, it had to retreat from its plan to organise a rally.