Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led 20-Party Alliance on Saturday announced another 72-hour spell of countrywide hartal from 6:00am on Sunday alongside its ongoing countrywide indefinite transport blockade to push for its various demands, including a fresh national election under a non-party administration.

In a statement, BNP joint secretary general Salahuddin Ahmed, on behalf of the alliance, announced the shutdown programme.

The BNP alliance called the shutdown programme also to register its protest against extrajudicial killings by the law enforcers, killings, enforced disappearances, abductions, and crippling of the opposition men by the law enforcers and ruling party 'cadres', mass arrest of the 20-party men and common people, the government's interference in the judiciary, control over the media, and demanding 'restoring democracy and people's voting, basic and human rights' and the release of arrested its senior leaders and all political prisoners.

Besides, the alliance will stage mass rallies on Monday in all the district towns, upazilas, thanas, pourasavas and all wards of divisional cities across the country to press home their demands.  

Salahuddin said they will enforce the hartal alongside their ongoing non-stop transport blockade which remains in force for 61 consecutive days.

The shutdown will begin at 6:00am on Sunday will end at 6:00am on Wednesday if it is not extended further as the alliance did earlier fifth times.

Though their shutdown programme is drawing poor response, the 20-Party alliance called six consecutive spells of hartal during working days.

The alliance had already enforced five consecutive spells of hartal on working days — from 6:00am Sunday to 6:00am Friday— since 1 February killing nearly one hundred people and disrupting the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams.

BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia enforced the blockade for an indefinite period on 5 January after having failed to come out of her Gulshan office to join a planned rally of the 20-party alliance in the city to mark 'Democracy Killing Day'.