The BNP led 20-party alliance has reduced their countrywide 24-hour hartal to 12 hours for Thursday protesting against the gun attack on party Chairperson Khaleda Zia`s adviser Riaz Rahman.
 
BNP Joint General Secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi came up with the announcement through a press release sent to media on Wednesday.

Earlier on Tuesday night, the alliance called the nationwide 24-hour hartal starting from 6:00am, Thursday to 6:00am, Friday through another media release signed by BNP assistant office secretary Abdul Latif Jony.

The revised schedule tells that the 12-hour countrywide hartal will be observed from 6.00am to 6.00pm Thursday.

Earlier on Tuesday, unidentified miscreants carried a gun attack on Reaz Rahman, former state minister for Foreign Affairs and Adviser to Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson Khaleda Zia, and set fire to his car in Gulshan in the city.

The attackers shot at his car in front of the Westin Hotel in Gulshan-2 around 8:45pm on his way back from Khaleda's office, Shairul Kabir Khan, a press wing staff of Khaleda, told The Daily Observer on Tuesday night.

NS