The BNP has said it would hold its Oct 25 rally in Dhaka ‘at any cost’ and warned the government against trying to thwart it.
Tension is escalating in Bangladesh as the two main political parties have announced their intention to take to the streets on the same day.
Opposition leader Khaleda Zia is expected to take part in the rally and the BNP’s Vice Chairman Sadeque Hossain Khoka has urged the party supporters to be ready for ‘armed resistance’ if the government tried to scuttle the programme.
Minister without Portfolio Suranjit Sengupta has hinted that the government might refuse the BNP the permission to hold the rally.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, the BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi claimed hundreds of thousands of people were ready to join the rally.
“We have moved an application seeking permission for the rally. But the venue has not been fixed yet,” he said.
“The Oct 25 rally will take place,” Rizvi asserted.
He warned the government that opposition supporters would respond violently if it tried to interfere with the rally.
The BNP has sought the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s permission for the event to be held either at the Suhrawardy Udyan or the Paltan ground or in front of the party’s Naya Paltan headquarters.
Police are yet to respond.
Rizvi said the government wanted to suppress the demand for non-partisan regime with the help of the loyal members of law enforcing agencies.
“We want to tell them that no conspiracy will work. The people will help clinch our demand through a mass uprising,” he said.
As per the Constitution, the general election must be held within the last 90 days of the government’s tenure, and in this case, between Oct 25 and Jan 24 next year.
The BNP-led opposition and the Awami League-led coalition are at loggerheads over the nature of the election-time government.
The opposition is seeking the restoration of the caretaker-government system, scrapped through the 15th constitutional amendment, to oversee the elections.
The BNP Joint Secretary General alleged that the government was harassing opposition leaders and activists across the country ahead of Oct 25.
“Police raided houses of Dhaka Metropolitan Convener Sadeque Hossain Khoka and the chairperson’s adviser AZM Zahid last night. They are trying to create panic.”
Rizvi also flayed Finance Minister AMA Muhith for calling BNP Senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman a ‘bandit’.
“The tenure of this Finance Minister has seen a slew of corruption cases including the looting of money from state-owned banks and the Padma Bridge scam. Now he is resorting to falsehood to satisfy his master.”
He said the people had no illusion about the Finance Minister,who, Rizvi claimed had “changed his jersey” time and again.
Source: bdnews24
