No hartal, blockade on Sunday

The party will organize human chains in cities and towns across the country protesting alleged government repression.

BNP has refrained from calling any hartal and blockade program on Sunday marking International Human Rights Day.

Instead, the party will organize human chains in cities and towns across the country protesting alleged government repression, said BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi in a virtual press briefing on Thursday.

In Dhaka, party activists will form a human chain in front of the Jatiya Press Club. The event will be attended by the families of BNP leaders and activists who have been victims of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, false arrests, and other rights violations, according to BNP sources. 

Similar programs are scheduled to be held across the country.

The most recent 48-hour blockade, called protesting the unveiling of the polls scheduled by the Election Commission, will end at 6am on Friday.

After a rally on October 28 that was foiled by clashes with law enforcement, the BNP called a hartal the next day and subsequently announced a three-day countrywide blockade to protest attacks on its gathering and arrest of its senior leaders.

Since then, the BNP had been enforcing regular nationwide blockades and hartals to materialize their one-point demand of election under a non-partisan interim government.