The BNP-led Opposition has not announced any fresh agitation plan
after its 84-hour shutdown across Bangladesh.
BNP’s Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said new programmes
would be declared once the policymakers made up their mind.
“We are not backing off from our movement,” he said at Wednesday’s
media briefing.
The 18-Party alliance had enforced two 60-hour shutdowns in the past
two weeks to press for a non-party government’s supervision in general
elections.
The government is dead against it and the process to form an
all-inclusive polls-time government, as per the Prime Minister’s
proposal, is ongoing.
The Opposition had called for another spell of shutdown last Friday
but extended it by another day after police arrested five BNP leaders
including three Standing Committee members.
During the latest shutdown, the roads were mainly empty but trains,
planes and launches ran on schedule.
At least 20 persons had been injured in arson.
The government and the Opposition blamed each other for the atrocities.
At Wednesday’s press briefing, the BNP claimed two Opposition
activists had been killed and around 5,400 others were injured during
the latest shutdown.
It claimed 2,110 Opposition activists had been detained and another
21,000 had been implicated in false cases.
Three of BNP’s women lawmakers were released after a 20-minute
detention after they were picked up from the street in front of the
party’s Naya Paltan headquarters earlier in the day.
Rizvi said Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia and BNP’s acting Secretary
General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir had congratulated people on making
the lockdown a success.
He declined comments on the reaction of the Prime Minister’s son
Sajeeb Ahmed Wajed Joy who had said attacks in which people ended up
burnt were acts of ‘murder’.
“A BRTC bus from Narsinghdi was torched at Azimpur. Those, who had
attacked the residence of Prof Pias Karim, had been released as they
are affiliated with the ruling party.
“The people clearly know who are behind these… they know who had
torched vehicles and killed people,” said Rizvi.
The BNP leader had been staying at the party’s Naya Paltan
headquarters with BNP central committee member Belal Ahmed and several
other staff since last Sunday.
He had been briefing the media on the overall situation of the strike
amid police cordon. He also took part in talk shows at private TV
channels.
Rizvi claimed the government was not serious about holding a dialogue
to end the political deadlock and termed the ministers’ resignation a
‘drama’.
“If ministers resign, they automatically become effective as per the
Constitution.
“The government does not care about the law. They are running the
country like the ‘outlaws’,” he claimed. -bdnews24.com
