Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday renewed her request to opposition leader Khaleda Zia to withdraw the 60-hour hartal – Monday to Wednesday – for the sake of the students who will appear in the Junior School Certificate (JSC) examinations from Monday. “Some 21 lakh students will appear in the JSC exams, she’s trying to stop the exams by enforcing an unnecessary hartal. She wants to put a barrier to their academic life. I’ll request her to withdraw the hartal and stop playing with the fate of the students,” she told a mammoth rally at Suhrawardy Udyan.
Awami League organised the rally marking the historic Jail Killing Day. Deputy Leader of the House and AL Presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury presided over the rally. Supporters, activists and leaders from different parts of the city and its adjacent areas gathered in the historic Suhrawardy Udyan at 3 pm. Hasina, also the President of the ruling AL, asked the opposition leader to allow the students to appear in their examinations. “Your hartal breaks the hearts of students, don’t do that, please don’t obstruct their studies,” she said.
Sharply criticising the opposition leader to announce the hartal programme on the first day of the JSC examinations, the premier questioned what actually the BNP leader achieved by killing of 20 people enforcing another 60-hour hartal last week? Turning to the burning issue of dialogue, the premier said the door for discussion is still open to solve the political stalemate, but the opposition leader will have to withdraw the hartal first. “You (Khaleda) have to withdraw the hartal, you have to promise to people that you won’t enforce hartal any more,” she said.
The Prime Minister said the next general election will be held in due time. “The election will be free, fair and neutral, and Inshallah people will cast their votes in favour of ‘Boat’ allowing us to serve them again,” she added. About the opposition leader’s demand, Hasina said it was not clear to her what the opposition leader actually wants. “Is it the caretaker government or a neutral government? Did she forget the experience of 1/11,” she asked.
The AL chief made it clear that her proposal to form the all-party polls-time government was given to the opposition leader for plugging the scope of unconstitutional power takeover and continue the democratic process. Referring to her phone call to the opposition leader inviting her to Ganobhaban for dialogue and have dinner together, the Prime Minister said the opposition leader rejected her invitation and enforced the hartal.
About the Election Commission, Hasina said the Commission was formed through a search committee formed by late President Zillur Rahman and it has been working independently. Over 5777 elections were held under the commission in a free, fair, neutral and credible manner, and no allegation was raised from any corner about their results, the AL chief told the rally.
The Prime Minister mentioned that opposition candidates have won many elections, including the big city corporation polls, under the present Election Commission. On the Jail Killing Day, she said after the brutal assassinations of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the successive military government killed the four national leaders in Dhaka Central Jail, who had led the Liberation War in absence of Bangabandhu.
She said General Ziaur Rahman awarded Bangabandhu’s killers by giving them higher posts in different Bangladesh missions abroad and passed the indemnity act to give immunity to the killers. Previous BNP-Jamaat government also patronised the killers, made war criminals cabinet members and is now trying to save the war criminals through staging various anti-people movements. Besides, the opposition leader has forged alliance with Hefajat-e-Islam and the activists of BNP-Jamaat though Hefajat men made arson attacks on the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, burned the copies of holy Qurans, gutted roadside shops and looted those in Baitul Mukarram areas.
Sheikh Hasina asked the opposition leader how they will protect Islam through burning the Quran, making arson attacks on mosques and torching vehicles and shops. The Prime Minister said the present government, as part of its election pledge, started the trial of the war criminals, a number of verdicts have already been pronounced and the trial will certainly be completed on Bangladesh soil.
Sheikh Hasina asked the leaders and workers of the party to keep vigil in their respective areas so that no one could destroy the existing peace and harmony in the country in the name of hartal. Highlighting the successes of her government in agriculture, education, health, poverty alleviation through expansion of social safety net programmes, the Prime Minister said Bangladesh is now treated as a ‘role of model of development’ in the international community. The rally was addressed, among others, by senior leaders of Awami League including Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sen Gupta, Mohammad Nasim, Matia Chowdhury and Sayed Ashraful Islam. – UNB
