Opposition BNP is likely to enforce hartal again for two or three days next week to force the government to concede to their demand for arranging the next polls under a non-party administration.
The decision was taken at meeting of the BNP standing committee members on Tuesday night at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office with Khaleda Zia in the chair.
At the two-hour meeting that began at 9pm, the party policymakers suggested Khaleda to enforce a nationwide hartal for two or three consecutive days from Monday to Thursday as there is no initiative visible from the government side to resolve the political crisis.
As per the decision of the meeting, Khaleda Zia will finalise the decision in this regard considering the JSC and JDC exams, and BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam will announce it at a press conference on Friday after a secretary general-level meeting of the 18-party alliance.
The 18-party’s meeting will be held at 3:30pm at Khaleda’s Gulshan office.
Earlier, the 18-party enforced two spells of 60-hour countrywide shutdown –October 27 to October 29 and November 4 to November 6—to push for the same demand.
As the opposition’s second spell of 60-hour hartal ended on Wednesday, Khaleda held the meeting with the party policymakers to work out the next course of action.
Meeting sources said the BNP leaders expressed anger at the failure of the business leaders in convincing the Prime Minister for initiating a secretary general-level meeting between the two major parties, government’s move to form an all-party cabinet and extend the tenure of the parliament session.
They also opined that the opposition should pursue harsher action programmes without waiting for negotiation.
The BNP policymakers also termed the government’s dialogue offer as a drama.
They, however, said they will join talks if the government takes any sincere initiative.
The highest policymaking body of BNP also decided to send a BNP probe committee headed by a BNP standing committee member to Bangarm in Pabna to look into the recent attacks on Hindu community members.
The BNP chief expressed her displeasure over the apparent inactive role of the Dhaka city unit of BNP in the opposition’s recent hartal programme.
She also separately talked to party standing committee members Mirza Abbas and Gayeshwar Chandra Roy and asked them to coordinate with the city unit to gear up its activities and strengthen the movement.
BNP standing committee members, Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Barrister Moudud Ahmed, Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman, MK Anwar Begum, Sarwari Rahman, Barrister Jamiruddin Sircar, Brig Gen ASM Hannan Shah (retd), Barrister Rafiqul Islam Mia, Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, and Nazrul Islam Khan and BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir were present.
Source: UNB Connect
