The 60-hour countrywide hartal enforced by the BNP-led 18-party alliance alongside its nonstop blockade demanding the cancellation of January-5 election results ended at 6pm Wednesday amid stray incidents of violence, leaving three people dead.
The opposition combine originally enforced a 48-hour shutdown at 6am on Monday which was scheduled to end at 6am on Wednesday. However, the alliance on Tuesday extended the shutdown by 12 hours.
Although the first and third days of the shutdown were largely peaceful, the second day was marked by violence, killing the three people in Sirajganj and Feni.
In Sirajganj, two people were killed and three others sustained burn injuries as pickets allegedly set alight a truck on Dhaka-Bogra highway at Horgati in Salanga upazila on Tuesday.
In Feni, a covered van driver, Shah Alam, 32, was killed and his helper Al-Amin, 30, severely burnt as their vehicle overturned and was ablaze after being hit by a petrol bomb thrown by miscreants on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway in Hafezia area of Sadar upazila in the earl hours.
Over 150 people, mostly opposition men, were arrested during the hartal hours in the three days while several vehicles damaged across the country.
Meanwhile, no picketing by the opposition activists was seen in the capital on the third and final day of the shutdown on Wednesday.
The daily life in the city was almost normal with public transports hitting the streets and city dwellers coming out of their residences.
However, no long-route bus departed from or arrived in the city during the hartal.
Incidents of violence were reported from a few districts on Wednesday.
In Kishoreganj, the rain communications of the district with Chittagong remained suspended for nearly four hours following the derailment of a train after miscreants removed fishplates from the rail tracks at Halimpur in Bajitpur upazila in the early hours.
In Chittagong, a police constable and an opposition activist were injured in a clash in Sagorika area under the city’s Pahartali police station on Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, miscreants torched a church at Bakakura in Jhenaigati upazila of Sherpur district on Tuesday night.
The opposition announced the fresh hartal hours after the closure of voting for the 10th national election held on Sunday that saw low voter turnout and massive violence, leaving over 20 people dead across the country.
The ruling Awami League, however, swept the violence-hit and low turnout election.
The opposition boycotted the election as its demand for a non-partisan interim government to oversee the polls went unheeded.
Meanwhile, the opposition asked the government to quit and take initiatives for holding the election under a non-party caretaker government through talks.
Source: UNB Connect
