The BNP-led 20-party alliance has called a fresh spell of 72-hour countrywide hartal from Sunday morning protesting the “conspiracy to starve its chief Khaleda Zia to death”.

The alliance will enforce the shutdown at 6:00am Sunday, which will continue till 6:00am Wednesday, according to a press release signed by BNP Joint Secretary General Salauddin Ahmed.

The hartal is also meant to protest "killing of opposition leaders and activists in the name of crossfire, repression, and filing of false cases against alliance leaders”, and demanding the release of all political prisoners.

The fresh shutdown has been announced two days after the five-day hartal by the anti-government alliance ended on Thursday.

The Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and its equivalent examinations, which were due to start on February 2, were already deferred twice due to the five-day shutdown.

The alliance is scheduled to stage demonstration at all cities, districts and upazilas today over the same issues.

At least 69 people have died in the political violence that started from the beginning of this year, a year after the January 5 national polls.