Two buses were set on fire in the capital's Gulistan and Kafrul areas on Saturday evening, on the eve of the BNP and other like-minded parties’ 48-hour countrywide hartal called in protest against the announcement of the national polls scheduled by the Election Commission.
A bus was torched around 7:40pm in front of the Gulistan toll plaza.
Two fire engines from Siddikbazar Fire Station arrived at the spot around 7:48pm and doused the blaze, Fire Service and Civil Defence Control Room Duty Officer Anisur Rahman confirmed.
Earlier, a bus belonging to Bihanga Paribahan was torched in the Taltola area of Agargaon around 6:45pm.
Locals extinguished the fire before the fire trucks reached the spot.
After the fifth spell of countrywide blockade ended on Thursday, the BNP, Jamaat, and like-minded opposition parties called for the 48-hour hartal beginning on Sunday morning, rejecting the poll schedule.
The hartal, which will begin at 6am on Sunday and end at 6am on Tuesday, is meant to mount pressure on the government to step down, hand over power to a neutral government, and release all the arrested BNP leaders and activists, including its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
