3 detained from in front of BNP’s central office: Assistant commissioner of police

Three people chanting slogans in front of the BNP's central office in Nayapaltan have been detained by police, Golam Ruhani, assistant commissioner of the Motijheel zone said.

Currently, Dhaka is in the grip of the fifth blockade called by the BNP since 5 November over their demands to hold elections under a caretaker government.
One of the detained is Jatiyatabadi Janata Dal's Raihanul Huq Raju, while the other two have not been identified yet.

A protest march in Shahbagh was led by a BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi since many senior leaders, such as Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul are in jail.

Traffic within Dhaka remains normal despite the blockade, with some congestion in areas such as Gulistan, Karwan Bazar and Farmgate.
No long distance buses have left the Gabtoli and Mohakhali terminals.

Over 11,000 leaders and activists of the BNP have been arrested in countrywide raids by police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in the past three weeks, the party has alleged.

The crackdown followed the BNP's 28 October rally.

On 28 October, the BNP had announced a rally in the Nayapaltan area to push home its demand for elections to be held under a caretaker government. 

The rally was suspended midway by BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul, who also announced a hartal for the next day. 

On the next day, Fakhrul was arrested by police.  

This was followed by arrests of other BNP leaders, including Amir Khosru and Moazzem Hussain. 

The BNP hartal and the subsequent blockades it announced in the following days were joined by the Jamaat-e-Islami and other parties, who held similar demands. 

With the election schedule to be announced tomorrow or the day after, the country is bracing for another round of political violence.