The 18-Party alliance has called a Bangladesh-wide dawn-to-dusk general strike for Wednesday to put pressure on the government to withdraw all cases against BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman.
BNP Standing Committee member Abdul Moyeen Khan made the announcement at a press briefing on Monday night after a meeting of the alliance leaders with Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan office.
The shutdown was also called protesting the arrest warrant for Tarique, BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s eldest son, to bring him back to Bangladesh with the help of Interpol.
This is the second strike call by the opposition in two days after enforcing another one on Sunday in demand for a non-party poll-time government and withdrawal of government ‘ban’ on staging rallies and gatherings in the capital.
The BNP on Monday had also called shutdowns at 10 districts for Tuesday in protest at the warrant issued for Tarique.
The shutdowns will be enforced in Faridpur, Feni, Comilla, Madaripur, Kishoreganj, Joypurhat, Tangail, Narsinghdi, Laxmipur and Rajbarhi on Tuesday.
General strike will also be enforced in Chittagong, Chandpur, Faridpur and Gaibandha districts on Wednesday over the same reason.
Moyeen Khan on Monday night said, “The government is filing false and concocted cases against Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman. We are calling the daylong strike for Wednesday to demand withdrawal of those cases. Our programme will be peaceful.”
He also condemned arrest of Standing Committee member MK Anwar on Monday and sending him to prison. Anwar was accused in a case over incitement of religious passion and defamation.
The hour-long meeting of the coalition leaders which began at 9:15pm also discussed the political situation, ‘ban’ on staging rallies and meetings and the upcoming elections to four city corporations.
Source: bdnews24
