The BNP and its allies in the anti-government movement are set to enforce a new countrywide 48-hour road, rail, and waterway blockade starting Sunday morning to protest the schedule for the January 7 national election.
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, senior joint secretary general of the party, virtually announced the shutdown on Friday.
It is going to be the ninth blockade by the opposition bloc since late October.
Rizvi said the blockade is meant to mount 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.
Rizvi said other opposition parties, who have long been carrying out the simultaneous movement with the BNP, will also observe a similar program.
The blockade was announced around three hours before the end of the opposition’s hartal, which ended at 6pm on Thursday.
Rizvi thanked the country’s people and the opposition leaders and activists for making their hartal a success.
8 arson attacks in 24 hours
At least eight arson attacks were recorded in the 24 hours till 6am on Thursday, during the 24-hour blockade.
A total of eight vehicles were set on fire by miscreants during the period, and three of those were set ablaze in Dhaka’s Mirpur, Jatrabari, and Hazaribagh areas. Five buses, two trucks, and a container truck were burned during this period.
The incidents of arson were reported in Dhaka city, Rajshahi, Bogra, and Comilla.
A total of 68 members of 11 firefighting units were engaged in dousing the flames during this period, added the fire service official.
So far, 236 vehicles and establishments have been set on fire during the blockades and hartals since October 28, according to the Fire Service.
