Opposition’s 48-Hour Blockade Underway

The fresh 48-hour blockade programme called by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, its allies in the ongoing movement and the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, began across the country Sunday (November 5) morning to realise their one-point demand for the resignation of the Awami League government.

Reports received from all the divisional headquarters and a number of districts including Jashore, Lakshmipur, Feni, Noakhali, Panchagarah, Natore, Pirojpur, Lalmonirhat and Pabna said that no long-route bus left the divisional headquarters and district towns for Dhaka in the morning.

No long-route bus left Gabtali and Sayedabad bus terminals in the morning, our correspondents reported from the terminals.

Presence of public transports on different roads in the capital was much lower than the normal days, they reported and added that presence of members of law enforcement agencies on Dhaka streets was noticeable.

Train service from and to Dhaka was normal, officials said.

BNP leaders and activists brought out processions at places including Shanir Akhra and in Dhaka supporting the blockade but all the processions ended within a few minutes.

Hours before beginning the blockade, unidentified people set fire to six buses at six different places in Bangladesh capital Dhaka and Narayanganj and Bhola districts Saturday evening.

Four of the buses were torched in Dhaka while one each was torched in Narayanganj and Bhola districts. No casualty was reported.

Incidents of torching buses were reported centring hartal and blockade programmes while the opposition parties, including the BNP, urge the people to observe their programme and the ruling Awami League announced to resist the opposition’s agitation programmes.

The BNP called the two-day blockade programme on Thursday after the end of the three-day blockade and a dawn-to-dusk hartal on October 29, protesting at the police and ruling party attack on the BNP’s grand rally on October 28.

Jamaat and other political parties and alliances, including Ganatantra Mancha, followed BNP to announce that they would also hold the blockade programme simultaneously.

The hartal and blockade programmes were marked by violence that left several people killed and many others injured.

At least 13 people, including a police member and a journalist, have been killed in violent clashes since October 28.