The main Opposition BNP-led 18-party alliance is likely to call hartal again for three days next week to force the government to concede to their demand of holding the general election under a non-party caretaker government (CG). “Another nationwide hartal for three consecutive days from Monday may be enforced as we have not seen any government initiative to break the current political deadlock,” a BNP policymaker said on Wednesday.
The 18-party alliance will keep resorting to such agitation and start a non-stop non-cooperation movement after the 10th parliamentary poll schedule is announced by the Election Commission (EC), sources said.
According to the decision taken at the previous meeting of the national standing committee, the party’s highest policy-making body, there will be hartal for at least three to four days every week before the poll schedule is announced, the sources added.
The BNP’s standing committee members and its component leaders have also given party chief Khaleda Zia the final authority to take any decision any time about the anti-government movement over the CG issue, standing committee member Mahbubur Rahman told The Independent.
According to sources, the 10th parliamentary poll schedule would be announced any day between November 28 and December 3 and the Opposition will take to the streets to foil the EC’s attempt to hold the poll under an all-party election-time interim government, Rahman said.
Explaining the nature of the movement, he said blockades would be put up on rail, road and water ways. There would also be sit-in demonstrations at divisional headquarters.
Responding to a query, he said anti-government agitation like hartal, blockades and sit-ins will be enforced depending on the situation. “We will resort to a harsher movement without waiting for negotiation to reach a consensus on the CG issue,” he added.
The government has shown no positive gestures and blocked all roads for holding talks. It has also adopted various repressive measures to deal with Opposition party men. “We are carrying out hartal to hold the election under a non-party CG management instead of an all-party poll-time cabinet,” Rahman, who is also a former chief of the army staff, said.
Speaking to this correspondent, Abdul Moeen Khan, a standing committee member, said: “We will continue our movement until our demand is met.”
Another standing committee member said the new US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, Nisha Desai Biswal, is coming here next week. The US has been urging the ruling Awami League and the Opposition BNP for a dialogue to resolve the crisis. But the government has not taken any effective measures in this regard, the source said.
Biswal may hold a meeting with the BNP top leaders on November 17 to end the political crisis through dialogue, the BNP leader said. “We will wait for the outcome of her meeting with the government, as well as with us and then we will decide on our next course of action,” the source said.
-With The Independent input
