UNB, Dhaka: The BNP-led 20-party alliance has extended its ongoing 72-hour nationwide hartal by 48 hours till 6am Friday as part of its movement demanding a snap national election under a non-party administration and ‘resorting democracy and people’s voting right’ and protesting government’s repressive acts. In a statement, BNP joint secretary general Salahuddin Ahmed, on behalf of the alliance, announced the extension of the shutdown programme. Now the shutdown that began at 6am on Sunday will end at 6am Friday. The hartal is going on alongside the BNP alliance’s nonstop countrywide transport blockade. Earlier, the BNP-led 20-party alliance on Friday called a fresh 72-hour nationwide hartal from 6am on Sunday protesting what it said government’s repressive acts and growing incidents of extrajudicial killings’. The hartal is also meant for registering the 20-party’s protest against mass arrest of opposition men and common people, interference in the judiciary, control over the media and torture on journalists and the plot to kill BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia by stopping food supply to her office where she has been staying since February 15. The 20-party also had enforced hartal for five consecutive days from Sunday last two 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 6 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’ on January 5 last.
