IANS
Dhaka
The Khaleda Zia-led opposition alliance in Bangladesh relaxed the nationwide shutdown for 12 hours yesterday to celebrate Bangladesh’s historic win over England in the cricket
World Cup.
The announcement came hours after Bangladesh beat England by 15 runs at the Adelaide Oval in Australia on Monday to reach the knockout stages of the cricket World Cup for the first time, bdnews24.com reported.
The shutdown was relaxed from 6am to 6pm yesterday as the 20-party alliance celebrated the win, said Nazrul Islam Khan, standing committee member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which leads the opposition alliance in the country.
Celebratory processions would be taken out across Bangladesh to mark the victory, he added.
The indefinite countrywide transport blockade would, however, remain in effect, the BNP leader said in his statement, adding that the shutdown would, however, come into effect from 6pm on Tuesday and continue until 6am on Friday.
This is the first time that the BNP-led alliance has decided to relax the shutdown it has enforced since February.
The opposition coalition has not been paying any heed to the calls from the government to withdraw the shutdown considering the safety of the students who are sitting for various examinations.
The BNP and its allies have been enforcing the shutdown only on working days, forcing the authorities to hold the examinations on weekly holidays.
Former prime minister and BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s 20-party opposition alliance, which boycotted the general election held on January 5 last year, has also enforced a non-stop nationwide blockade since January 5, demanding fresh parliamentary polls under a non-party caretaker government system.
More than 100 people have been killed so far in the ensuing political violence and most of them have been killed in fire bomb attacks on public vehicles. Frequent bomb blasts, arson attacks and numerous strikes have crippled normal life in Bangladesh.