20-party\\\'s nat\\\'nwide hartal underway

A nationwide daylong hartal, called for Monday by the BNP-led 20-party alliance, is passing peacefully since morning. The opposition coalition has been enforcing the dawn-to-dusk hartal (shutdown) protesting the ‘foiling’ of its scheduled rally in Gazipur and demanding the release of its arrested senior leaders. BNP acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced the nationwide shutdown programme on Saturday after an emergency meeting of the secretaries general of the 20-party combine at BNP chief’s Gulshan office. The hartal that began at 6am is also meant for registering protest against the government’s dual policy in enforcing law. This is the 20-party’s second hartal since the January-5 election as it enforced another shutdown programme on September 22 this year protesting the 16th constitutional amendment empowering parliament to remove Supreme Court judges for ‘misconduct’ and ‘incapacity’. On Saturday, the 20-party bloc enforced a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Gazipur and staged demonstrations across the country protesting the ‘foiling’ of the rally Gazipur rally, according to a private TV channel.