BNP calls 48-hour hartal from today
Staff Reporter :
The BNP on Saturday asked the government to cancel the polls schedule announced by the Election Commission and create atmosphere for holding a fair election.
“People knows that what types of election can be held under Awami League government,”BNP Senior Joint-Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said while speaking at a virtual press briefing.
He asked the people to join the ongoing movement for holding a fair election under neutral caretaker government.
Rizvi also urged the countrymen to make success the BNP and like-minded opposition parties’ 48-hour nationwide hartal which will be started from Sunday morning, protesting the EC’s announcement of the polls schedule for the 12th parliament election on January 7.
This hartal programme is also part of their movement to force the government to resign to pave the way for holding the election under a neutral caretaker administration.
The shutdown will begin at 6am on Sunday and end at 6am on Tuesday. The move is also meant to mount pressure on the AL government to release all the arrested BNP leaders and workers, including its secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
“This hartal is meant for restoring all the lost rights of people and realising the demand for holding a free, fair, and acceptable election. This shutdown is also for registering the protest against repression of the government,” he said.
Rizvi accused the government of a serious crackdown on opposition politics across the country with the aim of establishing an autocratic dictatorship since the country’s voters turned down the schedule announced by the Election Commission for the next national election.
“The country’s 12 crore voters rejected with hatred the dictated election schedule announced by the Election Commission,” he said.
He said people who have been disenfranchised for the past 15 years have taken to the streets demanding the resignation of ‘despotic ruler Sheikh Hasina’, and for the installation of a non-partisan caretaker government to oversee the next polls.
“Fascist Sheikh Hasina is carrying out a big crackdown across the country to establish an autocratic dictatorship, by eliminating the nationalist forces and opposition parties and dissidents through a cunning blueprint after establishing her control over all the state apparatuses, including the judiciary, administration and police,” the BNP leader said.
He claimed that the police have been unleashed on the people like wolves to arrest the BNP leaders and activists and their family members.
“The astonishing evil efforts of the police have demonstrated that Sheikh Hasina’s government has become violent to create a destructive and lifeless situation and dull around for holding a lopsided election.
Like in the past, she wants to make the festival of vote robbery a success by confining the people of Bangladesh and evicting them from their homes,” Rizvi said.
