BNP’s hartal evokes lukewarm response

BNP activists and supporters were largely absent from the streets as the party was trying to enforce a dawn-to-dusk hartal (shutdown) in the capital city on Sunday protesting against ‘massive vote frauds’ in the Dhaka city elections, reports UNB.

There was no report of any violence until the filing of this report.

Daily affairs were unaffected and there were hardly any shortage of transportation in the morning since Bangladesh Road Transport Owners' Association had announced to operate their vehicles during the shutdown.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir called for the shutdown on Saturday evening, reviving the ‘hartal culture’ in Bangladeshi politics after a nearly five-year gap.

“We completely reject the election results … [and] call hartal for tomorrow (Sunday) … from 6am to 6pm in Dhaka city,” he said.

Jatiya Oikyafront extended its support to the BNP programme.

Awami League mayoral candidates were unofficially declared elected in Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC).

Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh won the DSCC polls bagging 424,595 votes, defeating BNP’s Ishraque Hossain by 188,083 votes. In DNCC, Atiqul Islam got 447,211 votes to defeat BNP’s Tabith Awal by 183,050 votes.

BNP last announced countrywide nonstop blockade on January 5, 2015 and it continued until April 4, leaving at least 120 people, including policemen dead, mostly in firebomb attacks.

Party Chairperson Khaleda Zia had announced the programme when police barred her from coming out of her Gulshan office to join an anti-government rally.

BNP has since refrained from announcing hartals. It did not call for shutdown when Khaleda was jailed on February 8, 2018 after her conviction in Zia Orphanage trust graft case.