The BNP-led 18-party alliance has called another countrywide 72-hour road-rail-waterway blockade to push for election under a non-party poll-time government and to protest against announcement of the poll schedule. It will begin at 6 am on Saturday and end at 6 am on Tuesday. Another demand is unconditional release of leaders and activists arrested on trumped up charges.
BNP spokesperson Salauddin Ahmed made the announcement in a video message to different media outlets from a secret location on Thursday. He said gayebana namaz-e-janaza will be held across the country after the Jumma prayers on Friday, seeking eternal peace for the souls of those killed during the recent blockade.
The blockade will be withdrawn if the government accepts the Opposition’s demand for election under a non-party poll-time administration and postpones the poll, Salauddin said.
On November 30, the 18-party alliance enforced a 72-hour blockade from 6 am on December 1, which was later extended by 59 hours till 5 pm today (Thursday).
A total of 131-hour blockade has been observed by the BNP-led 18-party alliance amid sporadic violence, bomb explosions, vandalism and arson attacks on passenger buses and railways across the country, leaving at least 23 people dead so far.
Besides, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said in a press statement that the government has become “crazy” seeing the overwhelming participation by people in the anti-government movement. It is arresting Opposition party men on false, baseless and motivated charges to thwart the movement, he said. He also assailed the government for arresting the party’s vice-chairman, Sadeque Hossain Khoka. He said Khoka, also convener of the Dhaka City unit of the BNP, is a “victim of the government’s politics of vengeance”.
“Our movement can never be stopped by such methods. Rather, it will take a vigorous turn soon to ensure that the AL-led government is removed from power,” he warned. The government will be forced to step down in the face of an intense movement if the detained leaders are not released unconditionally, he said.
Salauddin claimed that one person was killed and 479 were injured, 212 of them having sustained bullet injuries. Law enforcers have detained 393 party men and filed 2,100 cases against leaders and activists.
He also said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is curtailing constitutional rights, including freedom of speech, and imposing a ban on meetings and processions. “We are carrying on our movement through video tapes,” he added.
-With The Independent input
