The BNP-led 20-party alliance has called a nationwide 36-hours general strike from Sunday morning, protesting the hike (proposed) of electricity price and arrest of coalition leaders and activists.
BNP Joint General Secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi made the announcement through a press release on Saturday.
According to the combined announcement, the hartal will start at 6am Sunday and will continue till 6pm Monday.
On January 20, the technical evaluation committee of the BERC recommended raising bulk power tariffs. It recommended increasing the average per unit (per kilowatt-hour) tariff of the PDB by 5.16%.
Later, the technical evaluation committee recommended against raising bulk power tariffs at the consumer-level on January 21.
In the press note, Rizvi said: “The hartal was called, protesting price hike of electricity, arrest of around 10,000 opposition leaders and activists and the government’s conspiracy of sabotage.”
Rizvi, remaining in the hideout, asked the alliance leaders and activists to observe the strike “peacefully and spontaneously.”
The announcement of hartal came amid countrywide roads and waterways blockade for indefinite period since January 5.
Blockade-related violence has killed at least 35 people over the last couple of weeks.
Hundreds of vehicles, including those belonging to law-enforcers, were burnt and attacked.
The BNP chairperson called the non-stop blockade on January 5 after she was barred from coming out of her Gulshan office.
BNP said she was confined but the government said she was free to go home.
Police kept in place extremely tight security around Khaleda’s Gulshan office for 16 days. On January 12, the security was relaxed.
But Khaleda never came out; instead she said in a press conference that she was going to stay there and the blockade would continue unless the government took the first steps towards solution.
