Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and like-minded parties on Thursday called a 48-hour hartal across the country from November 19 to press home their one-point demand and to protest the announcement of next general election schedule by the Election Commission.
The announcement came on the last day of the 48-hour blockade enforced by the BNP and its allies and a half-day hartal by Ganatantra Mancha.
BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi announced the hartal programme through a virtual press conference at around 4pm.
He said the shutdown will begin at 6am on Sunday.
The BNP leader said they will enforce the hartal also to increase pressure on the government to step down handing over power to a neutral government and to release all the arrested BNP leaders and workers, including its secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
Some other opposition parties, including Gono Odhikar Parishad and Labour Party also announced a 48-hour hartal during the same period.
One of BNP’s allies Ganatantra Mancha, a group of six political parties and organisations, on Thursday also announced a 48-hour hartal across Bangladesh for November 19 and November 20.
A press release of the Ganatantra Mancha in the afternoon said it called the hartal protesting the announcement of the schedule for the next general election.
They alleged that Election Commission had announced the schedule to stage a one-sided election. They demanded to cancel the election schedule and announced to resist any unilateral election.
Meanwhile, BNP and its allies are on simultaneous movement to press home their demand for resignation of the government, dissolving the parliament and holding the next general election under a nutral government.
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