BNP calls dawn-to-dusk hartal on Monday

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has called a dawn-to-dusk shutdown (hartal) across the country on Monday.

Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, senior joint secretary general of the party, announced the shutdown in a virtual press briefing on Saturday.

“I am calling a hartal from dawn to dusk on 18 December on behalf of the BNP,” he said,

This is the fifth round of hartals that the BNP has enforced so far since 28 October. The party also imposed 11 spells of blockades for 22 days during this period.

BNP first enforced hartal across the country on 29 October in protest of thwarting their grand rally on 28 October. Several top leaders of the party, including secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, have been arrested since then.

Following the mass arrest of party leaders and activists, the BNP has been holding blockades and hartal after every one or two days. Other parties in the simultaneous movement led by the BNP are also holding similar programmes.