Warning that her arch rival Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina awaiting a dire consequence, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Sunday said the boat of Awami League will not be able to reach its destination through the ‘sea of blood’ by killing innocent people.
“You all will see the tragic and dangerous consequences for what you’re (Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina) doing now. Get ready for the consequences. Your boat won’t reach the destination,” an angry Khaleda told reporters in front of her Gulshan residence.
She made the remark while talking the journalists in the afternoon having failed to come out of her residence to join the 18-party’s ‘March for Democracy’ programme at Nayapaltan.
Apparently accusing Hasina of Pilkhana carnage and recent ‘killings and disappearances’, Khaleda cursed her arch rival saying they (who are killing people) will also turn blind with the unending cries of the family members of slain BDR personnel and other innocent people.
Criticising frequent ‘firing’ by the law enforcing agencies on the common people, the BNP chief said, “We’re generous to people. We’ve affection and love for the people of the country. We feel their feelings. We didn’t fire a single shot on people though you had (AL) enforced 173 days of hartals.”
She posed a question to the Awami League chief saying how many killings she (Hasina) wants. “We’ll see.”
Khaleda, also a three-time Prime Minister, said the entire international community is well aware of how many people ‘Hasina has killed’ and how many people are disappeared. “Police and Rab are cooperating with her (Hasina) in implementing it.”
Terming the current regime ‘illegal’ and ‘undemocratic’, Khaleda asked the government to quit immediately for averting the dire consequences. “This government is illegal and undemocratic. If this government has any shame, it should quit,” she said.
The BNP chief said their March for Democracy programme will continue tomorrow, no matter what. “Our programme will continue tomorrow, even day after tomorrow …it’ll continue, let’s see what you (govt) can do.”
Criticising the government for imposing restriction on her free movement, Khaleda said, “Is it democracy? I want to come down on the streets. If you (Hasina) have enough courage, come up with counter-programmes. We’ll see then.”
The BNP chief said the capital would have been flooded with people from all walks of walk had there been no barriers from the government. “Today, you’re not allowing me to come out of my residence. You have no right (to confine me),” she said cursing Hasina.
Khaleda also criticised the government for the one-sided polls without opposition and said 154 candidates have already been elected unopposed. “This is not election. This is rather selection.”
Expressing her anger to the police personnel, she said, “Don’t side with the government, don’t be its sycophants. Be neutral. It would be of no use of siding with Hasina. Think about people, stay with people.”
Asking Hasina to read history, Khaleda said no one will be allowed to sell out the country.
Khaleda Zia walked out of her residence carrying the national flag at 2:50pm and got into her car to join the programme, but failed to come out due to police barricades in front of her residence.
Being barred by law enforcers, she got down from the car at 3:35pm and she was heard saying, “I tried to come out again and again. But I’m not allowed to come out, I’m confined. Let me come out, if you have the courage.”
Later, the opposition leader sent out a message saying that she wants to talk to the media.
Sources said around eight platoons of police have been deployed around the opposition leader’s house since Saturday night.
The law enforcers also dumped two trucks of sand in front of the main gate of Khaleda’s residence, apparently to create an obstacle to movement of the opposition leader’s vehicle.
BNP leaders alleged the opposition leader’s police protocol has also been withdrawn.
Khaleda Zia in a meeting with a delegation of pro-BNP journalists on Saturday night expressed her firm determination to join the Nayapaltan rally. “The opposition leader told us she’ll join the rally at any cost,” general secretary of Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) Elias Khan told UNB emerging from Khaleda’s Gulshan residence.
Meanwhile, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in a statement on Saturday night alleged that its chairperson Khaleda Zia has been confined to her Gulshan residence after withdrawing her police protocol.
Source: UNBConnect
