20-party calls 24-hr hartal in capital, daylong in 9 dists for Thursday

The BNP-led 20-party alliance on Wednesday called a 24-hour hartal in the capital city alongside a daylong one in Dhaka and its eight other nearby districts for Thursday protesting the filing of ‘false cases’ against Khaleda Zia and the arrest of its leaders and activists. The eight other districts are Gazipur, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Manikganj, Tangail, Kishoreganj, Narsingdi and Mymensingh. In two statements, BNP organising secretary Fazlul Haq Milon announced the shutdown programmes. He said the hartal is also meant for registering the opposition alliance’s protest against the killing of its leaders and activists and torture on them. Milon said the shutdown will be observed in addition to their ongoing non-stop transport blockade programme enforced by the BNP chairperson on January 5. The 20-party will observe a hartal from Thursday 6m to Friday 6am in Dhaka city, Milon said in a statement in the evening. In another statement earlier in the day, the BNP organising secretary announced that the 20-party alliance will observe a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Dhaka and eight other districts on Thursday with the same grounds. On Saturday, a case was filed against 50 leaders and activists of the BNP-led 20-party alliance, including BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, in connection with Friday’s arson attack on a bus at Jatrabari that left at least 30 people injured with burns. On Monday, another case was filed against 32 leaders and activists of the 20-party alliance, including BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, in connection with the torching of a covered van in Chouddagram upazila in Comilla on Sunday. – UNB, Dhaka.