BNP to rally nationwide on Mar 18

Staff Reporter :
BNP and its like-minded political parties will hold rallies in all cities on March 18 to press home their 10-point demands including holding the next general election under a non-party caretaker government.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the announcement at the party’s human chain
programme at its Nayapaltan office in the capital on Saturday.
Mirza Fakhrul said, “The government has destroyed all the democratic institutions of the country to cling to power. Uncontrolled corruption is behind the price hike of essential commodities in the country.”
The senior leaders of BNP and its alliance partners also led the human chain in different areas of the capital, others cities and districts towns and announced similar programme for March 18.
The Dhaka south and north city units of BNP formed human chains separately in the city’s Nayaplatan and Badda areas respectively.
Party standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain led the human chain programme of the Dhaka north city unit. It was the ninth simultaneous programme of the by BNP and other opposition parties.
Not only in the capital, but the human chains were also formed in all the districts and cities.
The programme is also meant for registering the opposition parties’ protest against the price hike of power, gas and essential items, and mounting pressure on the government to quit power and to release BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia without any condition, drop the ‘false’ cases against her and other party leaders and activists and accept the party’s 10-point demand.
Apart from BNP, Ganotantra Mancha, Jatiyatabadi Samamona Jote, Gonoforum and People’s Party, Jatiyatabadi Samamona Jote Peshajibi Ganatantrik Jote formed human chains separately and announced a similar programme for March 18.
From December last year, BNP and like-minded parties and alliances started a simultaneous movement to bring down the government, or at least realise the all-important caretaker or non-party provision ahead of the next election.
Besides, the leaders and activists of BNP’s Dhaka north and south city units observed a road march programme in five areas in the capital since January 28.