The BNP-led 18-party alliance is likely to enforce another 36-hour shutdown from April 17 to push for its various demands, including the release of its arrested leaders and activists.
The alliance may also go for road-blockade programme for an indefinite period or wage a non-cooperation movement in the last week of this month if the opposition leaders and activists are not freed by April 21.
Besides, the associate bodies of BNP, mainly the cultural ones, are likely to stage a showdown on April 14, Pahela Baishakh, the first day of the Bangla calendar, in an apparent move to counter the Shahbagh protesters’ programme.
The decisions were taken at a meeting of BNP standing committee member on Wednesday night.
However, Khaleda will finalise the decisions after a meeting with the top leaders of the 18-party alliance on Thursday night.
The nearly-two hour meeting began around 9pm with BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia in the chair at her Gulshan office.
BNP standing committee members Dr RA Gani, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Lt Mahbubur Rahman, ASM Hnnan Shah, Barrister Rafiqul Islam Miah, Dr Moyeen Khan and Sarwari Rahman attended the meeting.
BNP Dhaka city unit convener Sadeque Hossain Khoka was also present in the meeting on special invitation.
Meeting sources said the BNP policymakers elaborately discussed the country’s latest political situation and the wholesale arrest of the party leaders and activists.
Khaleda expressed her disappointment over the evolving political situation and asked the party leaders to get ready to tackle any situation.
Meanwhile, a 36-hour shutdown of the opposition alliance ended at 6pm on Wednesday amid clashes and crude bomb blasts at various places across the country.
Earlier, the alliance enforced hartals on March 12, 18, 19, 27 and 28 on the same grounds.
Many senior BNP leaders, including party’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, are now in jail. They have been put behind bars on charge of violence.
Three Dhaka courts on Sunday sent 10 senior BNP leaders, including Fakhrul, Moudud Ahmed, Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy and Abdullah Al Noman, to jail in seven cases filed over March 1 violence.
Earlier on March 11, police arrested over 150 opposition leaders and activists during a police raid on BNP’s Nayapaltan central office.
Source: UNBConnect
