The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Friday urged the members of law enforcement agencies not to take any stand against the people of the country and attack unarmed people to protect the ‘Awami League regime.’
At two brief rallies in the capital before starting black flag mass processions, BNP leaders also said that failing to become a member of the BRICS, prime minister Sheikh Hasina was now trying to fool people in the name of bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit.
The party held black flag mass processions from Naya Paltan to Dayaganj and from Shyamali Ring Road to Mohammadpur bus stop as part of simultaneous movement to oust the government and for national election under a caretaker government.
Alongside the BNP, the Ganatantra Mancha, the 12-Party Alliance, the Jatiyatabadi Samamana Jote, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Gono Forum and the People’s Party, Reza Kibria Kibria-led Gana Odhikar Parishad, Nurul Haque Nur-led Gana Odhikar Parishad, the Nationalist Democratic Movement, the Four-Party Democratic Left Alliance, the Bangladesh Labour Party, Samamana Ganatantrik Peshajibi Jote, and the Bangladesh Sadharan Chatra Odhikar Sangrakhan Parishad also brought out mass processions in the capital as part of the simultaneous movement.
Besides the simultaneous movement, the AB Party, the NDP, Janatar Odhikar Party, Samamana Peshajibi Ganatantrik Jote and Bangladesh Jatiya Party also staged separate demonstrations in the Dhaka city on the day demanding resignation of the ruling Awami League.
‘The police attack peaceful rallies without any provocation nowadays. We faced such police attacks on peaceful protests in 1969 during the Pakistan regime,’ BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas said at a brief rally organized at the BNP central office at Naya Paltan by Dhaka south city BNP before starting a black flag procession.
Addressing another rally at Shyamali, BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said that police must stop attacking and picking up opposition leaders and activists conducting drives in plain clothes.
‘A section of police, civil servants, the RAB, members of judiciary and evil political jointly established a regime. They are arresting opposition leaders and activists and staging drama on extremism, but people as well the world are now aware of it,’ Khasru said.
He accused the government of labeling opposition leaders and activists as extremist only to make them victim to enforced disappearance, murder, torture and detention.
About the prime minister’s visit to South Africa, Khasru said that she had spent public money taking her party and family members to South Africa.
‘She went there with a hope to become a member of BRICS. But she failed. She only spent people’s money,’ Khasru said, adding that Hasina staged drama of bilateral meetings in South Africa.
‘BRICS released an official photo of all member and non-member countries. But this ‘illegal prime minister’ is not in the photo. The politics of lies will not work in Bangladesh anymore,’ he added.
At Naya Paltan rally, Abbas said that the people would not survive unless Sheikh Hasina’s government resigned.
He said that some ‘ill-educated’ police officers kept oppressing the people.
He said that some ‘ill-educated’ people led the country to destruction. The government looted more than Pakistan did, the government smuggled thousands of crores of money out of the country.
‘The Awami League has crippled the people of the country economically. If this government does not resign, people cannot survive, there will be no independence,’ he said.
Although many countries are talking about Bangladesh, a country has clearly said that Sheikh Hasina should be kept in power, he said.
‘I will tell them, don’t be friend of the BNP or the Awami League or the government, be friend of the people of this country. There will be no government without vote, the people will not allow it anymore,’ he said.
The BNP and most of the other opposition parties on the day brought out black flag mass processions in Dhaka city demanding resignation of the ruling Awami League government handing over the power to an impartial election-time administration.
The BNP will hold same programme in major cities of the country today with same demand.
Several thousand of BNP leaders and activists joined the black flag mass processions carrying black flags ignoring rain.
