BNP defers hartal from Monday to Tuesday

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has deferred its pre-announced dawn-to-dusk shutdown (hartal) from Monday to Tuesday as Bangladesh will observe a daylong state mourning on Monday over the demise of the Kuwaiti emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah.

Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, senior joint secretary general of the party, made the announcement at a press briefing on Sunday.

He said they have changed the date of the shutdown to show respects to the late Kuwait emir.

The emir of oil-rich Kuwait, Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, died on Saturday, the royal court said, after three years in power. He was 86.

"With great sadness and sorrow, we mourn... the death of Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Emir of the State of Kuwait," said a statement aired on Kuwaiti state television.