The train at Gopibagh area in capital was set on fire by miscreants the night before the hartal, resulting in the deaths of four individuals and the burning of four compartments.

The BNP and other like-minded opposition parties have organised a 48-hour hartal in protest of tomorrow's 12th parliamentary election.

The hartal started at 6 am and will conclude on Monday at 6 am.

A lot of people go out of Dhaka in advance of the national parliamentary election on January 7.

Though there weren't as many cars as there were on previous days, public transport was still operating on the streets despite the threat of arson attacks.

A 48-hour hartal has been planned by the BNP and other opposition groups with similar views in opposition to tomorrow's 12th parliamentary election.

The hartal began at six in the morning and will end at 6 on Monday January 8.

Four people were killed as arsonists burnt four coaches of the Benapole Express train in the Dhaka Gupibag area on Friday night.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi announced the hartal at a virtual press briefing on Thursday January 4.

He said their programme is meant to drum up public support in favor of the party’s call to boycott the January 7 election.

BNP along with nearly three dozen opposition political parties have been carrying out a simultaneous movement since December 10 last year to force the current government to quit and hold the 12th parliamentary election under a non-party neutral administration.

Many senior leaders, including BNP’s secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, were arrested while many others went into hiding in the face of a crackdown by the law enforcers.

But starting October 29, the BNP and other like-minded parties have imposed nationwide hartals for five Times and blockades for 23 days total, divided into 12 phases.

On December 20, the BNP and other like-minded parties proposed the Called for a movement of non-cooperation.