Insisting that the ruling Awami League’s days were numbered, the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Tuesday asked its leaders and activists to get ready for an all-out movement to oust the government from power.
BNP leaders made the call at two separate rallies near Dhaka in Keraniganj and Tongi, respectively, on the first day of the party’s 15-day fresh anti-government programmes.
Addressing the rally at Zinzira area in Keraniganj, BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas said that he had come to invite the people of Keraniganj to participate in the movement to oust the government.
‘We will build a massive movement; that’s why the rally is here today. We have come to invite you. We will create such a situation in the whole country, including Dhaka city, that this government will be forced to resign,’ he said.
‘I saw a deputy commissioner saying that power cannot be left in the hands of the BNP. A judge said that power cannot be left in the hands of the BNP. Hey brother, who are you? The people will decide in whose hands the power will be given,’ he said.
Abbas said that the resignation or removal of this government was only a matter of time.
‘This government is afraid. To free the country from the situation it is in today and to free the nation, a free national leader Begum Khaleda Zia [BNP chairperson] is necessary,’ he said.
Addressing the rally at the Tongi College gate area, BNP standing committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy said that the BNP would no longer wait for permission of the administration for the agitation.
He also commented that the intelligence agency would not be able to protect the current government.
‘Our movement is do or die. Live or die. We don’t want to live with Sheikh Hasina’s torture. So we have to be prepared for that. By ensuring the downfall of Sheikh Hasina, we will be able to protect the voting rights of the people through a fair and free election,’ he said.
He said that they were fighting for the people and that they did not need police, as people would stand by them.
Addressing the rally, another BNP standing committee member, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, said that the days of the Awami League were numbered as people had already decided to oust the fascist regime.
‘Time is very short for AL; now their days are numbered,’ he said.
In the rallies, leaders and activists of various levels of BNP and its front organisations joined, ignoring the late monsoon rain.
During this time, activists raised slogans, demanding an election-time neutral government and Khaleda Zia’s release.
A huge number of members from different law enforcement agencies were deployed around the rally venue to avoid any untoward incidents.
The BNP Dhaka city south unit organised the Keraniganj rally, and the Dhaka city north unit organised the rally in Tongi.
