The BNP-led 20-party alliance on Tuesday once again extended its ongoing 72-hour nationwide hartal by 48 hours till 6am Friday to press home its various demands, including a fresh election under a non-party administration. In a statement, BNP joint secretary general Salahuddin Ahmed, on behalf of the alliance, announced the extension of the shutdown programme. The alliance for the fifth time extended its 72-hour hartal to 120 hours. Now the shutdown that began at 6am on Sunday will end at 6am Friday. The hartal is going on alongside the 20-party’s nonstop countrywide transport blockade. Besides, the alliance will stage mass rallies in all district towns, upazila headquarters, pourasavas, thanas and all wards of divisional cities across the country on Thursday to push for their demands. Earlier on Friday, the 20-party alliance announced the fresh 72-hour spell of nationwide hartal from 6am on Sunday alongside its ongoing countrywide indefinite transport blockade. The alliance called the shutdown programme also to register its protest against killings, enforced disappearances, abductions, and crippling of the opposition men by the law enforcers and ruling party ‘cadres, mass arrest of the 20-party men and common people, the government’ interference in the judiciary, control over the media, and demanding ‘restoring democracy and people’s voting right’ and push for their demand for the release of their arrested leaders and activists. The 20-party also had enforced hartal for five consecutive days from each Sunday for the last four weeks, forcing the authorities concerned to reschedule the Secondary Scholl Certificate (SSC) exams that fell during the hartal hours. BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia enforced the blockade for an indefinite period on January 5 after having failed to come out of her Gulshan office to join a planned rally of the 20-party alliance in the city to mark ‘Democracy Killing Day’. – Dhaka, Mar 3 (UNB)
