The first day of the 72-hour countrywide hartal, enforced by Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led 20-Party Alliance as part of its movement for restoring democracy and people’s voting right, is underway, alongside the ongoing non-stop transport blockade across the country. 

The shutdown programme that commenced at 6:00am on Sunday will end at 6:00am on Wednesday.

Miscreants set fire to two buses at Syedpur of Burichong upazila in Comilla on early Sunday.

Chandpur police detained eight leaders and activists of BNP and its alliance on charge of instigating sabotage activities.

Presence of motorised vehicles was almost normal on the Dhaka city streets.

A large number of law enforcers remained deployed in different parts of the city to fend off any trouble.

In a statement, BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, on behalf of the alliance, called the shutdown programme on Friday.

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) members arrested Rizvi from a house at Baridhara in Dhaka on Saturday midnight.