The BNP-led 18-party alliance on Thursday called a fresh spell of countrywide 83-hour road-rail-waterway blockade, the fifth of its
kind, beginning at 6am on Saturday. BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan announced the blockade programme at a press
conference at BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan office in the afternoon demanding that the next national election be arranged under a
non-party government and the ‘farcical election’ be cancelled. The fifth spell of the blockade will continue till 5pm on Tuesday. “The
government on one hand is staging a drama of a farcical election and on the other increasing the killing, arrest and repressive acts across
the country. This situation can’t be continued. So, we don’t have any other alternative to continuing the ongoing movement,” Nazrul told
reporters. He said they have chalked out the blockade programme until 5pm on Tuesday from 6am on Saturday considering the Christian
community’s Christmas Day on December 25 (Wednesday). Nazrul hoped that the country’s people will spontaneously observe the protest
programme in the greater interest of the nation. He, however, said all the vehicles of the United Nations and the Health Department to be
engaged in National Immunisation programme on Saturday will remain out of purview of the blockade. Besides, media vehicles, ambulances,
vehicles of fire brigade and dead body-carrying vehicles will also remain out of ambit of the blocked programme. Bangladesh will
immunise around 22 million children, aged 0-59 months, on December 21 (Saturday) for bolstering its polio-free status by providing two drops
of polio vaccines during the 21st National Immunisation Day (NID).
There is no respite for the country’s people from blockade as the opposition combine called the fresh spell with the fourth spell still
remaining in force as it is set to end at 6am on Friday. The opposition alliance has been on nonstop agitation programmes since the
Election Commission announced the election schedule on November 25 fixing the balloting date for January 5. The 18-party has already
enforced 418 hours of road-rail-waterway blockade across the country in four spells –71-hour, 131-hour, 144-hour and 72-hour ones– after
the announcement of the election schedule, that left at least 78 people dead. There had been violent incidents like vandalising and
torching of vehicles, clashes between blockade supporters and police and ruling party activists, arrest of opposition leaders and activists
and crude bomb blasts allover the country, including the capital, during the blockade programme, injuring over 2,300 people and
damaging several hundred vehicles. The opposition combine enforced the first spell of 48-hour road-rail-waterway blockade 6m on November
26 protesting the announcement of the schedule for the 10th parliamentary polls and later it was extended by 23 hours that ended
at 5am on November 29. – UNB
