Online Desk: The BNP on Thursday announced a 48-hour hartal across the country starting from Sunday to protest the schedule for the next national election announced by the Election Commission (EC).

Party Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi came up with the announcement at a virtual press briefing on Wednesday evening.

He said the shutdown will begin at 6am on Sunday and end at 6pm Tuesday.

Rizvi said they will enforce the hartal also to mount pressure on the government to step down handing over power to a neutral government and to release all the arrested BNP leaders and workers, including its secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

Some other opposition parties, including Gono Odhikar Parishad and Labour Party also announced to enforce a 48-hour hartal during the same period.

Meanwhile, Left Democratic Alliance (LDA) enforced a half-day hartal from 6 am to 2 pm and Ganatantra Mancha enforced dawn-to-dusk hartal from 6am to 6pm on Thursday protesting the polls schedule.

Earlier, the party and like-minded parties enforced a 48-hour countrywide road-rail-waterway blockade from 6am Wednesday to mount pressure on the Awami League government to quit power and hold the next election under a non-partisan administration. It was the fifth phase of the blockade programme of the opposition parties.

They also observed a nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal on October 29 in protest against the attacks on BNP’s grand rally at Nayapaltan that ended amid the incidents of torching vehicles and clashes, leaving three people dead.

Half an hour into the start of BNP’s much-talked-about grand rally at Nayapaltan on October 28, BNP leaders and workers locked in a clash with the ruling party activists and police at Kakrail. Soon violent clashes spread around Nayapaltan, foiling the rally midway.