The leader of the opposition in the parliament, Khaleda Zia, also the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, on Wednesday said that her party would not allow the holding of any parliamentary polls if they were not held under a caretaker government.
Putting out a call for the people to rise up and overthrow the government, Khaleda said that her party would overthrow the AL-led government through a popular movement as it happened in Arab countries instead of violence.
The BNP will announce fresh action programmes as part of the party’s anti-government movement soon after Eid-ul-Fitr, Khaleda said as she addressed a gathering of hunger strike at the Institution of Engineers in the capital.
Khaleda asked the law enforcement agencies to stop carrying out repression against opposition activists and said they would, otherwise, face dire consequences.
The BNP organised the hunger strike in protest at police assault on the opposition chief whip, Zainul Abdin Farroque, ‘torture’ on party activists in the July 6–7 general strike and in demand for annulment of the 15th amendment to the constitution.
Khaleda reached the venue at 12 noon although the programme was scheduled to begin at 10:00am and to continue till 6:00pm under her leadership.
Leaders of all components of the BNP-led alliance and some small like-minded political parties and professional bodies, civil society actors, educationists and cultural personalities expressed their solidarity with the hunger strike.
Oli Ahmed’s Liberal Democratic Party, which split from the BNP towards the end of the BNP’s 2001–2006 tenure, also expressed its support for the hunger strike.
Khaleda, who spoke for about an hour, mostly spoke of the ruling Awami League’s ‘failures’ in running the country and its ‘conspiracy’ to cling to power.
‘As the Awami League has come to know that the people will reject it outright in the next elections, it has started trying to hold the polls being in power,’ she alleged.
Terming the amended constitution ‘the manifesto of the Awami League,’ Khaleda said, ‘Soon after the change in power, the constitution will be thrown away.’
She called the Awami League an evil force and said that the force had gripped the country and was conspiring to cling to power by stage-managing elections with Ershad.
‘That is why,’ she said, ‘they have changed the constitution. We will not allow it to be successful. We will, if necessary, sacrifice our blood to save the country and its people.’
Khaleda asked the new generation to rise up against the ‘fascist’ Awami League-led government. ‘It is the high time you rose up against the government.’
Accusing the government of maintaining a subservient foreign policy towards India, she asked the government to disclose, before the signing of the deal, what Bangladesh would get in exchange for the transit to India through Bangladesh.
‘We also want friendship with our neighbouring country but the friendship will need to be based on mutual benefits,’ she said.
Khaleda also vowed to resist a government move ‘to set up a special economic zone in Sylhet for India.’
She also announced to resist the government move to establish a new international airport and to set up a coal-fired power plant in Bagerhat.
Holding the Awami League responsible for the share market scam in the beginning of the year, Khaleda asked the ruling party to get ready to face the music. ‘Who will you try? Get ready to face the trial.’
As for police assault on Zainul Abdin Farroque, Khaleda came down heavily on the law enforcement agencies and asked them to work impartially and to stop repression against opposition activists.
‘Stop excesses and repression. You will, otherwise, get a fitting reply. You will not only lose your job but also be punished,’ she said.
Khaleda also claimed that the Awami League had not taken part in the war for national independence. ‘They did not join the independence war. It is the people who liberated the country in 1971,’ she said.
BNP standing committee members RA Ghani, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Moudud Ahmed, MK Anwar, Mahbubur Rahman, Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, Rafiqul Islam Mia and ASM Hannan Shah, the chairperson’s advisers Enam Ahmed Chowdhury, Shamsuzzaman Dudu, Osman Faruk, Sabihuddin Ahmed and Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, vice-chairmen and other senior leaders attended.
The acting amir of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Mokbul Ahmed, acting secretary general ATM Azharul Islam, assistant secretaries general Shafiqur Rahman and Abdur Razzak and Dhaka city unit chief Rafiqul Islam Khan were present.
Speaking on the occasion, ATM Azharul asked Khaleda to float a ‘grand national unity’ bringing all democratic and patriotic forces in a single platform under her leadership to rid the country of the grip of the Awami League’s misrule.
The Bangladesh Jatiya Party chairman Andaleeve Rahman Partho, Jatiya Ganatantrik Party president Shafiul Alam Pradhan, National Democratic Party chairman Khandaker Golam Mortuza, National People’s Party chairman Sheikh Showkat Hossain Nilu, Khelafat Majlish chairman Maulana Mohammad Isahaq, Bangladesh Labour Party chairman Mostafizur Rahman Iran, National Awami Party chairman Jabel Rahman Ghani and Bangladesh Islamic Party chairman Abdul Mobin attended the programme.
Former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Emajuddin Ahmed, daily Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman, Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Jafrullah Chowdhury, National Press Club president Kamaluddin Sabuj, Dhaka Journalists’ Union president Abdus Shahid and Agriculturists Association of Bangladesh leader Hasan Zahid Tushar attended the hunger strike.
Renowned singer Baby Naznin and Dhaka University teacher Tazmeri SA Islam broke Khaleda’s fasting by giving her water to drink about 6:15pm.
-With New Age input
