Hot on the heels of the 24-hour blockade, a daylong hartal enforced by BNP and like-minded parties is underway on Thursday.

The opposition parties’ hartal is meant to register their protest against the schedule for the next national election announced by the Election Commission (EC), and to mount pressure on the government to quit, hold the next election under a non-party neutral government and release the opposition leaders and activists, including BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

The hartal has begun at 6:00am and will end at 6:00pm today, said BNP’s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

Vehicles of the newspapers or media, ambulances, and vehicles transporting oxygen cylinders and medicines will remain out of the purview of the hartal, the BNP leader said.

Earlier, the 24-hour blockade enforced by the opposition parties on Wednesday morning was marked by stray incidents of torching vehicles.