BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Wednesday warned that there will be no retreat from the ongoing movement until their demand for arranging the next polls under a non-party administration is met.
“We’re on a justified movement for restoration of the non-party caretaker government and we won’t retreat from it. We have no option but to move ahead,” he said.
Addressing a press briefing at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office on the last day of the 18-party’s 84-hour hartal, Rizvi, however, said the party policymakers will soon finalise the next course of action.
In a bid a to put the opposition supporters on a war mood, the BNP leader asked the leaders and activists of the 18-party alliance to use their bodies as shields to face the bullets of this autocratic regime in observing the action programmes.
“I want to tell our leaders and activists that we have no master. Our only shelter is Bangladesh. We’re on a struggle for our motherland, its people, and ensure their rights… at this sorry state affair, we must remove the roadblock to democracy,” he said.
Rizvi alleged that the government is making mockery with the opposition by speaking about dialogue and making contradictory statements of about it.
Turing to the ministers’ resignations, the BNP spokesman said the posts of the ministers fell vacant as they have submitted their resignations to the Prime Minister. “But they’re now using muscle power and trying to mislead people by making unguarded remarks as they’ve understood their illegal presence in the cabinet.”
After turning illegal, he alleged, the government is now behaving like outlaws defying laws and violating the constitution.
The BNP leader also urged the government officials, mainly the administration, not to abide by the orders of the current ‘illegal’ government.
Rizvi alleged that the ruling party ‘cadres’ are resorting to acts of sabotage like killing people in firing, killing in fire, torturing and maiming to suppress the people’s movement and create confusions.
Referring to the bus torching incident in Shanirakhra that injured eight people, he said setting bus alight and killing people in fire are the old tradition of Awami League. “They’re now committing various acts of sabotage, including arson attacks on buses, to hide their tradition and blame BNP.”
About the hartal, the BNP leader said people across the country spontaneously observed the fourth day hartal like three other days defying and foiling obstructions and repression by law enforcers and ruling party ‘cadres’.
He, on behalf of opposition leader Khaleda Zia, congratulated the country’s people for making the 84-hour hartal a success.
Rizvi claimed that police arrested over 400 opposition activists across the country, while more than 1,100 were injured in attacks by law enforcers and ‘ruling party cadres’.
At least two opposition men were killed in firings and attacks by the law enforcers and ruling party cadres while 5,400 injured and 2110 were injured from Saturday to 4pm Wednesday, he further claimed.
Source: UNB Connect
