The nationwide 83-hour road-rail-waterway blockade, enforced by the BNP-led 18-party alliance, ended on Tuesday afternoon amid stray incidents of violence, leaving a person dead in Satkhira. The fifth spell of the protest programme that started at 6am on Saturday ended at 5pm today. The opposition combine enforced the blockade programme demanding that the government arrange the 10th general election under a non-party caretaker government and cancel the January-5 ‘farcical’ election. The latest spell of the blockade was largely peaceful as there had been no reports of violent incidents barring some stray incidents like vandalism and torching of vehicles. However, law enforcers arrested large numbers of opposition men during the blockade period. An activist of Jamaat-e-Islami, Hafizul Islam, 28, was shot to death and a pedestrian injured with bullets during a clash between Jamaat-Shibir men and joint force members at Gobindakathi in Sadar upazila of Satkhira district on Tuesday, the last day of the blockade. According to reports reaching the UNB news desk, 16 people were injured in clashes between law enforcers and blockaders while over 100 arrested on the last day. Vehicular movement on the city streets was almost normal during the period. With the latest spell, the 18-party has enforced 501 hours of road-rail-waterway blockade across the country in five spells — 71-hour, 131-hour, 144-hour, 72-hour and 83-hour ones — after the announcement of the election schedule that left at least 80 people dead. The opposition alliance has been on nonstop agitation programmes since the Election Commission announced the polls schedule on November 25 fixing January 5 for the general election. – UNB
