20-party calls day-long hartal for tomorrow ; Jamaat’s hartal today

The BNP-led 20-party alliance has called a countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal for tomorrow (Monday) protesting the passage of the’16th Constitution Amendment Bill’ that empowered the Parliament to remove Supreme Court judges.BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced the shutdown programme in a press briefing at the party Chairperson’s Gulshan office in the city on Saturday evening. The leaders of the other partners also attended the briefing. Earlier, a secretary general level meeting of the alliance was held at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office with Mirza Fakhrul in the chair. The decision of the hartal was taken in the meeting. Monday’s hartal will be the first hartal of the alliance after the January-5 Parliamentary elections.The Parliament on Wednesday passed the much-talked-about ‘Constitution Amendment Bill’ without any opposition. The alliance’s hartal will begin at 6:00 am on Monday, right after the end of 24-hour hartal of one Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami from 6:00 am today (Sunday) to 6:00 am tomorrow. Jamaat, an alliance partner, called its hartal demanding the release of its Nayebe Ameer Maulana Delwar Hossain Sayedee, who was jailed by the Supreme Court unto death commuting his capital punishment for crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.The today’s hartal is the second phase of hartal of the party, as it observed the first phase of the 24-hour countrywide hartal on Thursday. In support of today’s hartal, the Jamaat-Shibir activists brought out processions in several parts of the country on Saturday. In some parts, they clashed with police.