Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is enforcing a day long dawn-to-dusk hartal (general strike) on Sunday in Dhaka rejecting the results of Saturday’s mayoral elections to Dhaka North City Corporation and Dhaka South City Corporation.
The strike is being observed in a peaceful manner with no reports of violent incidents so far. Vehicular movements along various roads are normal too.
Additional police force has been deployed in front of the BNP’s Naya Paltan central office in the capital.
BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday called for the shutdown, reviving the ‘hartal culture’ in Bangladeshi politics after a nearly five-year gap, reports UNB.
“We completely reject the election results … [and] call hartal for tomorrow (Sunday) … from 6am to 6pm in Dhaka city,” he said.
Jatiya Oikyafront extended its support to the BNP programme.
Awami League mayoral candidates were unofficially declared elected in Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC).
Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh won the DSCC polls bagging 424,595 votes, defeating BNP’s Ishraque Hossain by 188,083 votes. In DNCC, Atiqul Islam got 447,211 votes to defeat BNP’s Tabith Awal by 183,050 votes.
BNP last announced countrywide nonstop blockade on 5 January 2015 and it continued until 4 April, leaving at least 120 people, including policemen dead, mostly in firebomb attacks.
Party chairperson Khaleda Zia had announced the programme when police barred her from coming out of her Gulshan office to join an anti-government rally.
BNP has since refrained from announcing hartals. It did not call for shutdown when Khaleda was jailed on 8 February 2018 after her conviction in Zia Orphanage trust graft case.
