BNP, allies set to enforce daylong hartal Tuesday

The BNP and like-minded opposition parties are set to enforce a dawn-to-dusk hartal across the country on Tuesday to protest the Election Commission's schedule for the next national election under the Awami League-led government.

The shutdown, will start at 6am and will end at 6pm Tuesday, is also meant to mount pressure on the government to step down and hand over power to a neutral government and release all the arrested BNP leaders and workers, including its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

At a press briefing on Saturday, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, one of the few leaders of the party not incarcerated at present, called upon people from all walks of life and the opposition leaders and workers to observe the programme peacefully and make it a success.

“We call upon our leaders and workers at all levels to take to the streets bravely and observe a peaceful strike,” he said.

It will be the fourth round of hartal by the opposition parties since October 29, to go with eleven blockades that have together disrupted normal life and business every week.

BNP was supposed to enforce the hartal on Monday as per its previous announcement.

However, the party deferred the shutdown to today as Bangladesh observed a one-day state mourning today following the demise of Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi announced the decision at an emergency virtual press briefing on Sunday.

Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah, Kuwait’s ruling emir, died on Saturday after a three-year, low-key reign focused on trying to resolve the tiny, oil-rich nation’s internal political disputes. He was 86.