The ruling Awami League on Wednesday said that they would not allow the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party activists to stand in the streets from now on.
The party made the announcement at a rally what the party called ‘peace and development rally’ at the south gate of the Baitul Mukarram Mosque in the capital.
‘They [BNP] will be besieged, if they try to lay siege to Dhaka. We will not allow them to stand from now on,’ AL general secretary Obiadul Quader told the rally.
‘The United States wants free, fair, peaceful and transparent elections and they will impose restrictions on those who will resist elections. We want election,’ he said.
He wanted to see actions to be taken by the United States against opposition leaders for trying to resist the polls.
Dhaka South City AL organised the rally marking the 60th birth anniversary of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s youngest son Sheikh Russel and Sheikh Russel Day.
Referring to BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir’s ‘last message’ urging the prime minister to quit, Quader said that their final message to Fakhrul was that the next election would be held under Sheikh Hasina as poll-time prime minister.
‘Caretaker government is now sleeping at Azimpur graveyard. It will never return,’ said Quader, also the road, transport and bridges minister.
Slamming Fakhrul’s latest remarks that westerners’ commitment to democracy was giving the BNP courage to move forward with its movement for a credible election under a neutral government, Quader said that westerners were now passing difficult times due to their own problems.
The BNP depends on Pakistan and the United Sates while the AL depends on people of the country, said AL presidium member Shahjahan Khan.
‘We will not allow them [BNP] to hold any sit-in in Dhaka city,’ he added.
Urging party leaders and activists to bring sticks instead of banners during its programmes, AL presidium member Abdur Rahman said, ‘BNP is preparing gather 10 lakh people to lay siege to Dhaka city.’
AL presidium member Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya said that they would throw BNP people into the River Buriganga, if they come to take to the streets in Dhaka city from October 28.
Chaired by Dhaka South City AL president Abu Ahmed Mannafi, AL presidium members Jahangir Kabir Nanak and Kamrul Islam, joint general secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim, Awami Juba League chairman Sheikh Fazle Shams Parash, Dhaka South City mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh and Dhaka North City mayor Atiqul Islam, among others, addressed the rally.
