DHAKA: A fresh 72-hour nationwide hartal, enforced by Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led (BNP) 20-party alliance, has begun across the country since Sunday morning.

No acts of sabotages and arson attacks have yet been reported in the city since the shutdown has started from 6:00am.

However, supporters of hartal and blockade reportedly torched four passenger buses in the city and another one in Feni district on Saturday night on the eve of 72-hour hartal.

BNP Joint Secretary General Salahuddin Ahmed on Friday announced the shutdown through a press release, protesting the killing and arrests of the alliance men and demanding the restoration of democracy and voting rights.

This fresh shutdown came after a series of hartals by the alliance throughout last week, followed by a two-day break during the weekend.

Meanwhile, Islami Chhatra Shibir, students’ wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, is observing a dawn-to-dusk countrywide separately, in protest of ‘killing, forced disappearance, vandalizing houses, arresting of the party people’.

BDST: 0730 HRS, FEB 08, 2015