The BNP today announced a 48-hour hartal across the country starting from Sunday (November 19) to protest the schedule for the next national election announced by the Election Commission (EC) yesterday.

Party Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi came up with the announcement at a virtual press briefing last evening. He said the shutdown will begin at 6:00am on Sunday.

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 a 48-hour hartal during the same period.

Meanwhile, Left Democratic Alliance (LDA) enforced a half-day hartal from 6:00am to 2:00pm and Ganatantra Mancha enforced dawn-to-dusk hartal from 6:00am to 6:00pm today protesting the polls schedule.