Oppositions' Slack Hartal Underway

The countrywide dawn to dusk hartal for Thursday (November 30), called by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies, for the resignation of the government and holding the next general election under a non-party caretaker government is underway across Bangladesh in a slack manner.

The hartal began across the country after Wednesday’s countrywide blockade, enforced by the opposition political parties, when a number of vehicles were torched.

Reports received from divisional headquarters and a number of districts said that long route buses did not left the cities and districts for Dhaka.

The local transports, however, are plying though less in number.

The reports said that the presence of members of law enforcement agencies on roads and important places was noticeable.

The leaders and activists brought out processions at places in the cities and district towns supporting the hartal and chanted slogans to press home their demands.

In Dhaka, long route buses did not left three major terminals – Gabtali, Sayedabad and Mahakhali bus terminals, our correspondents who visited the terminals reported, quoting the staff at ticket counters there.The ticket counters were almost empty in the morning.

The number of public vehicles on roads in the capital is higher in number than the previous hartal days. However, the number is lower than the normal days.

Teams of Rapid Action Battalion and Border Guard Bangladesh were seen patrolling at places in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country on Thursday morning to maintain law and order amid the countrywide hartal.

Leaders and activists of the BNP brought out processions at different places in the capital in the morning supporting the hartal.

The opposition camp is on simultaneous street movement at a time when the country is witnessing the last day of nomination submission for the next general election slated for January 7 next year.

The Ganatantra Mancha, the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Gono Odhikar Parishad, and some other parties and alliances, along with the BNP, are also staging protests in the streets.

They are demanding cancellation of the schedule announced by the Election Commission for the next general election and release of the opposition leaders and activists who are now in jail.

The BNP claimed that that at least 365 more opposition leaders and activists were arrested in the past 24 hours until Wednesday, taking the arrest figure to at least 17,710 since October 28.

Countrywide raids, arrests and torture of the BNP leaders and activists continued in the hand of the law enforcement agencies, the BNP alleged.

Following the deadly clashes on October 28 during the BNP’s Dhaka grand rally, the opposition camp observed a one-day hartal on October 29.

Later, they enforced eight rounds of blockade programmes across the country until Thursday morning.