BNP to let loose after Oct 25

The BNP policymakers plan to enforce weeklong non-stop agitation programmes like laying siege to the capital, hartal and non-cooperation after October 25 to render the government non-functional.
They have been discussing the programmes, as they now believe the ruling Awami League would not budge on the issue of polls-time government, party sources said.
The current session of the ninth parliament will end on October 24. The national polls will be held anytime between October 25 this year and January 24 next year.
The BNP high-ups think the government would not pay any heed to the calls made by the United Nations, the USA and other countries for holding talks with the opposition to resolve the crisis over polls-time government.
According to them, all the signs indicate the AL would adopt all measures to stay in power during the next parliamentary polls.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already announced that the polls will be held without dissolving parliament and the cabinet.
“We will go for a non-cooperation movement to foil any unilateral election without the restoration of a non-party caretaker government system,” BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed told The Daily Star recently.
The party has considered all possible options for the final movement, he added.
Asked about the movement’s short-term strategy, the former minister said, “As we have very little time at hand, we have planned to push the government hard to achieve our goal.”
Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman, another member of the party’s standing committee, told The Daily Star the movement after October 25 would be split into three to four phases including a grand rally in the capital, where the BNP chairperson would declare the opposition’s next course of action.
In the first phase, said a senior leader of the BNP-led 18-party alliance, the combine would enforce “Dhaka Gherao” for several days and block all the four gateways to the capital — Tongi, Aminbazar, Chittagong Road and Postagola — to cut off Dhaka city from the rest of the country.
A non-stop countrywide hartal for three to four days would follow the siege.
In the final stage of the agitation, a non-cooperation movement would be launched, added the leader.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has already told her party’s Dhaka unit leaders that those who would work hard to make the siege successful would have a better shot at party nomination in the next parliamentary and city corporation polls.
Party insiders said Khaleda, in consultation with Tarique Rahman — senior vice-chairman and her elder son who has been in London since 2008 — is also working on how to face the government’s possible tougher actions against the opposition movement.
“We don’t know how the administration and the law enforcement agencies would conduct themselves after October 25,” Mahbubur said adding that the party’s strategy would be changed in accordance with the government moves.
Another senior BNP leader said, “We know that waging a tougher movement to resist one-sided polls will not be easy for us. That’s why our party chief is drawing up detailed plans including distribution of responsibilities among leaders who would be asked to carry out his/her duties at any cost.”
He also said BNP policymakers are also working on what the party would do in the event of massive confrontations on streets during their final showdown.
A number of leaders told The Daily Star that before their final push they would seek people’s involvement in the agitation.
They think if people voluntarily stay off the vote centres, it would be easy for them to resist one-sided polls.
Besides, the BNP-led 18-party alliance is working to build ties with the other political parties that support the caretaker government system.
Khaleda knows it would be impossible for her party and the alliance to wage a lengthy movement against the government with their present strength. So she has opted for a weeklong tougher agitation, said several 18-party leaders.
During a grand rally at the capital’s Shapla Chattar on May 4, the BNP chairperson had asked some top party leaders and chief of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and Jubo Dal whether they could continue a sit-in at the meeting venue. As the JCD and Jubo Dal chiefs were unwilling, she dropped the plan, said party sources.
The following day, she called upon her party leaders and activists to side with the Hefajat men during their “Dhaka Gherao” programme. Again, she did not get much of a response, said a top leader in the BNP-led alliance.
BNP insiders, however, believe the government’s grip on police and administration would slacken after October 25, as it would be the fag end of the government’s tenure.
That is why it would be easier for the opposition to wage the movement, as the law enforcers might not take a hard-line against the opposition activists.