A 48-hour countrywide hartal called by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and other like-minded parties is set to begin from 6:00 am today (Sunday).
BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi during a virtual press briefing last Thursday announced the general strike for Sunday and Monday.
The shutdown is meant to realise a slew of demands, including resignation of the government, cancellation of election schedule and arrangements for parliamentary polls under a neutral interim government.
On November 15, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal declared the schedule for the 12th parliamentary election slated for January 07.
The BNP, the Jamaat-e-Islami and other political allies observed its dawn-to-dusk hartal on October 29.
The maiden strike followed clashes between police and activists of the BNP during its grand rally outside the Nayapaltan headquarters in Dhaka on October 28.
The nationalist party and its alliance partners have since observed the nationwide blockade in five phases.
Gonotantra Mancha, Gonosanghati Andolon and other opponents also vowed to observe hartal in tandem with the nationalist party BNP for today and tomorrow.
Meanwhile, law-enforcement agencies personnel, including police and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), were seen deployed in different places and patrolling the city's streets.
On the other hand, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police is prepared to tackle any untoward situation during the ongoing hartal in the interests of safety and security of the city-dwellers.
A DMP official said police would act whatever necessity to ensure security during hartal in line with the directives from the Election Commission during polls.
According to him, police personnel are being deployed in more than 30 places in the capital to prevent arson attacks on buses during the BNP-sponsored hartal.
Political observers apprehended that the situation might be violent following series of political programmes by opponents amid the hard-line attitude of the government on the election issue.
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