<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>The BNP is going to enforce a 24-hour fresh road-rail-waterway blockade across the country starting from Wednesday morning and a daylong hartal on Thursday to protest the schedule for the next national election announced by the Election Commission (EC).</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Party Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi came up with the announcement at a virtual press briefing on Monday.</div><div><br></div><div>He said the blockade will begin at 6am on Wednesday and end at 6m on Thursday while the hartal will be enforced from 6am to 6pm on Thursday.</div><div><br></div><div>Rizvi said the programmes are also meant for mounting pressure on the government to quit, hold the next election under a non-party neutral government and release party leaders and activists, including its secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.</div><div><br></div><div>He said other opposition parties, who have long been carrying out the simultaneous movement with BNP, will also observe similar programmes.</div><div><br></div><div>The fresh programmes were announced 14 hours before the end of the opposition’s ongoing 48-hour blockade which will end at 6m on Tuesday.</div><div><br></div><div>Rizvi thanked the country’s people and the opposition leaders and activists for making their blockade programme a success.</div><div><br></div><div>BNP and like-minded parties enforced a 48-hour countrywide shutdown from November 19 and then announced a 48-hour blockade from November 22 and another phase of a 48-hour blockade from November 26 which will end at 6m on Tuesday.</div><div><br></div><div>The opposition parties have so far observed blockades in seven phases to mount pressure on the Awami League government to quit power and hold the next election under a non-partisan administration.</div><div><br></div><div>They also observed a nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal on October 29 in protest against the attacks on BNP’s grand rally at Nayapaltan that ended amid the incidents of torching vehicles and clashes, leaving three people dead.</div><div><br></div><div>Half an hour into the start of BNP's much-talked-about grand rally at Nayapaltan on October 28, BNP leaders and workers locked in a clash with the ruling party activists and police at Kakrail. The violent clashes soon spread around Nayapaltan, foiling the rally midway. According to UNB reports</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>