The BNP says it does not believe the process to form an all-party polls-time government will solve the current crisis.
The main opposition party’s Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said on Monday his party rejected the process.
“The existing crisis can only be solved if the Prime Minister steps down and takes initiatives to from a non-party election-time government,” he said.
The ministers submitted their resignation letters to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Monday’s Cabinet meeting, kicking off the process to form an “all-inclusive government.”
Hasina had proposed this form of government last month in a televised address to the nation.
The BNP, however, rejected it and proposed an election-time government comprising advisors to two past caretaker governments.
Opposition 18-Party alliance has been waging street agitation demanding a non-party government’s supervision in the national election.
On the second day of the Opposition-sponsored 84-hour strike, Rizvi said the government was plotting to hold a ‘unilateral election’.
“We reject the process to form an all-party polls-time government through the submission of ministers’ resignation letters,” he said.
Asked what steps the Opposition would take against the government’s move, Rizvi left it to the party’s policymakers to decide.
BNP chief Khaleda Zia had warned that the Opposition would thwart any attempt to hold a ‘unilateral election’.
Rizvi is staying at the party’s Naya Paltan headquarters along with BNP’s central committee leader Belal Ahmed and several office staff amid a police cordon.
Police on Friday arrested five BNP leaders including Standing Committee members Moudud Ahmed, MK Anwar and Rafiqul Islam Mia. Raids were also carried out at several leaders’ residences.
Rizvi had been alleging the party’s leaders were suffering from ‘insecurity’ since then.
Police were not allowing anyone into the BNP headquarters and journalists had to show their identity cards before entering.
At Monday’s press conference, the party claimed over 500 of its activists had been detained and 5,000 others sued.
Around 1,400 Opposition activists were injured on the second day of the shutdown.
The BNP Joint Secretary General claimed the Awami League was hatching various plots targeting the Opposition Leader.
“It won’t do any good,” he said claiming the party’s activists had come down on the streets to make the strike a success.
Rizvi claimed the shutdown, to press for a non-party caretaker government, was ‘a success’.
Source: Bd news24
