Oppositions’ 3-day countrywide blockade begins

The BNP and like-minded opposition parties are set to enforce a three-day blockade of road, rail and waterways across the country on Tuesday morning to mount the Awami League regime to quit and hold the next election under a non-party neutral administration.

Already at least two buses have been set fire on Monday night in Gazipur and Chattogram, allegedly in support of the blockad.

The blockade is also meant to protest the killing of opposition workers, attacks on BNP’s Nayapaltan grand rally on October 28 and the arrest of party Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and many other party leaders and activists.

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami said, it would also enforce the blockade simultaneously from Tuesday morning to Thursday evening demanding the current government‍‍`s resignation and installation of a non-party neutral administration to oversee the 12th parliamentary election.

Bangladesh AB Party is also observing the same political programme in solidarity with BNP.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi called upon the country’s people and their party followers to observe the programme spontaneously to make it a success.

At a virtual press briefing on Monday, he said "Our all-out blockades for three days will be observed on roads, railways and waterways."

Explaining the nature of their blockade, he said, they would block roads, railways and waterways to cut off communication of the capital with the districts, communication of the districts with the upazilas and the upazila’s communication with the unions.

He, however, said vehicles of the newspapers or media, ambulances and vehicles transporting oxygen cylinders and medicines will remain out of the purview of the three-day blockade.

Apart from BNP and Jamaat, the 12-party alliance, Jatiyatabadi Samamona Jote, LDP, Gonoforum and People’s Party, Gonotantrik Bam Oikya, Gono Odhikar Parishad Labour Party and NDM will also observe the programme separately.

After observing a day-long hartal, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Sunday evening announced the countrywide blockades for three consecutive days.

Later on Monday, Jamaat Acting Secretary General ATM Masum announced a similar programme.

On Sunday, BNP announced a nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal protesting the attacks on its grand rally at Nayapaltan. The shutdown was observed amid sporadic incidents of violence that left at least three people killed.

Meanwhile, the Detective Branch (DB) of Police arrested BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir from his Gulshan residence on Sunday morning. He was shown arrested in a case filed with Ramna Police Station in connection with ransacking the chief justice’s house and later sent to jail.

Earlier on Saturday, two people, including a police constable, were killed and several hundred others injured in violent clashes between law enforcers and opposition activists centring BNP’s grand rally at Nayapaltan.

Half an hour after the start of BNP‍‍`s much-talked-about grand rally at Nayapaltan, the party‍‍`s leaders and workers locked into a clash with the police at Kakrail. With the passage of time, violent clashes spread around Nayapaltan, foiling the rally halfway through.

In the wake of Saturday’s political violence, police have kept cordoned off the BNP‍‍`s Nayapaltan central office with a crime scene yellow tape.