Main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday said that the current regime would be forced to concede to their demand for holding the next general election under a non-party government as their party was going to launch a different type of movement involving the masses.
Talking to reporters at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office in the capital, he, however, assured that they would not announce any harsher programme like hartal or blockade so that street violence could be avoided.
‘It will undoubtedly be a little different from the previous movements and the involvement of the people will also increase,’ the BNP leader said.
They were confident that, he went on to say, there would be a huge involvement of people, especially young ones, in their one-point oust-government movement.
‘We believe that the government will finally be forced to concede and resign so that the next election can be held under a neutral government,’ Fakhrul said.
He claimed that their party’s recent youth rallies in different cities and districts drew an overwhelming response.
‘We will now begin the (road) march programmes. We hope to kick off the one-point movement then,’ the BNP leader said.
The one-point demand will, he said, combine the BNP’s 10-point demands and the other opposition parties’ different demands with the objective to force the AL regime to step down, dissolve the parliament, and arrange the national polls under a caretaker government by reconstituting the Election Commission. ‘The one-point demand is basically the resignation of this government.’
Asked about the nature of the new-type of movement, the BNP leader said that they were consciously avoiding harsher programmes like hartal and blockade.
‘There is no reason for us to resort to violence. If the government somehow pushes the movement in that direction, then they will be held responsible for that. We are carrying out the movement peacefully and we want to go to the final stage of it peacefully.’
Fakhrul, who returned to Dhaka in the afternoon from Thakurgaon after celebrating Eid-ul-Azha at his ancestral home, spoke about different political issues while exchanging Eid greetings with journalists.
