The Bnp has called a 24-hour hartal for thursday in protest against the gun attack on Khaleda Zia’s adviser Reaz Rahman injuring him at about 8-45 pm on Tuesday in the Gulshan area. His car was torched and burnt in the attack.
Quoting party’s joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed the assistant office secretary of Bnp Abdul Latif Jhoni issued a press release late Tuesday night to announce the hartal (shutdown) that will be enforced from 6 am on Thursday to 6 am on Friday.
A former state minister Reaz Rahman came under attack near the Westin Hotel in Gulshan 2 when he was going back after calling on Begum Khaleda Zia at her besieged party office in Gulshan.Rizvi Ahmed told the BBC on Wednesday morning the attack was a result of the government’s decision to resist the blockade programme of the opposition. He termed the attack as a dangerous violence which reflected the attitude to suppress opposition with a view to give a final shape to ‘one party rule’.
Asked what now the Bnp-led 20-party alliance would do, Rizvi Ahmed said they would continue the movement till the government comes up with proposal for dialogue with the agenda to discuss fresh elections acceptable to all political parties.
About a suggestion made by Prime Minister’s Adviser Hossain Tawfiq Imam that the government may consider Bnp’s demand for dialogue is the party in writing committed to give up association with ‘militants’, Rizvi said this reflected their one-party chauvinism. Can such dictates be reconciled in a democracy he said reminding that Bnp was a party backed by people’s mandate and had come to power three times in the past.
He said that in a democracy it is people who will decide about acceptability or otherwise of parties, not the ruling party. He said the present rulers had deep alliance with the party they talked about for a long time, and had gone to power with their support.
He said that the 20-party alliance had no alternative but to pursue movement till demand for credible elections was accepted and the right to franchise of the people restored. – Staff Reporter
