48-hour blockade: BNP, Jamaat bring out processions in parts of Dhaka
Jamaat brought out processions in Panthapath, Azampur, Shewrapara, Mirpur, and Pallabi this morning
The BNP and Jamaat have started multiple processions in order to enforce the 48-hour fresh blockade in order to protest polls scheduled announced by the Election Commission.
BNP brought out a procession in the capital's Dakshinkhan in the early morning.
Md Motaleb Hossain Ratan, the convener of the Dakshinkhan Thana BNP, led the procession.
Members of Gulshan thana Chhatra Dal organised a protest march and road blockade in Gulshan.
During the event, the activists chanted slogans supporting the blockade, demanding the cancellation of the election schedule and their one-point demand.
Meanwhile, Jamaat brought out processions in Panthapath, Azampur, Shewrapara, Mirpur, and Pallabi this morning.
Under the initiative of the Tejgaon-Hatirjheel zone of Jamaat, the party men held processions in Panthapath, Uttara, North Dhaka City, and also demonstrated a road blockade in Azimpur, Dakshinkhan.
In support of the blockade, leaders and workers of the Kafrul region of Jamaat organised picketing and a procession in Mirpur's Shewrapara area.
Nasir Uddin, a member of the working council of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami's North unit, said, "To save the country and the nation from these forces [Awami League], the people are united on the streets today," he said and urged the government to immediately resign and hand over power to a caretaker government."
"Otherwise, the government will have to pay a heavy price for declaring war against the people," he said during a demonstration in Mirpur's Pallabi area
This is the sixth nationwide blockade since 31 October.
Giving a pause for a day after its 48-hour hartal, BNP and like-minded opposition parties called for yet another 48-hour road-rail-waterway blockade across the country to protest the schedule for the next national election announced by the Election Commission.
Party Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi came up with the announcement at a virtual press briefing on Monday (20 November) afternoon.
Rizvi said the blockade is also meant to mount pressure on the government to quit, hold the next election under a non-party neutral government, and release BNP leaders and activists, including its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.