BNP to observe Nov 7 uprising anniv today amid tension [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

BNP to observe Nov 7 uprising anniv today amid tension

Local November 07, 2016

The Bangladesh Nationalist is set to observe the 41st anniversary of November 7 uprising today amid tension with their planned rally awaiting police permission and ruling Awami League leaders issuing warning that no rally would be allowed in Dhaka.
Several leaders and activists of BNP were arrested in the past two days in the capital, which the BNP dubbed as police’s action to spread fear among party activists
ahead of its rally to be addressed by BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia.
The government denied BNP permission to hold rally at Suhrawardy Udyan today to mark the day. The party was yet to get permission to hold the rescheduled rally at Nayapaltan on Tuesday.
Top Awami League leaders have warned that they would thwart the rally.
Awami League, BNP and different political and socio-cultural organisations would observe the November 7 uprising, in which Bangladesh Army soldiers and people overthrew the then government and freed the then army chief, Ziaur Rahman, who was held captive in Dhaka Cantonment from November 3 to 7 in 1975.
BNP celebrates the day as ‘national revolution and solidarity day’ while the ruling Awami League observes it as ‘the day of killing of soldiers and freedom fighters’.
Factions of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal observe the day as ‘the day of mass-uprising of the people and soldiers.’
A faction of JSD will hold a discussion at Colonel Taher Auditorium at Bangabandhu Avenue at 4:00pm today. Information minister Hasanul Haq Inu, also the JSD faction president, will preside the meeting.
Different political parties and social and cultural organisations have taken programmes to observe the day in their own way.
On Sunday, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi at a press conference at the party central office alleged that that police were ‘spreading panic’ by arrest and other means of reprisal against the party activists ahead of their rally.
Rizvi alleged that police drove out the activists of Zia Sangskritik Sangathan, a pro-BNP cultural organisation, when they went to the graveyard of BNP founder and former president Ziaur Rahman at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar to hold a blood-donation camp on Sunday morning.
He said that at least seven BNP leaders and activists were arrested in Dhaka on Saturday night while four leaders including BNP assistant office secretary Taiful Islam Tipu were arrested Saturday afternoon at the party central office gate.
To mark the November 7 uprising, BNP would hoist the party flag atop at all BNP offices across the country including its central office at Nayapaltan in the capital at 6:00am. Khaleda Zia is scheduled to place wreathes at the grave of Zia at 10:00am today.
BNP units across the country would organise discussions and other programmes according to their conveniences, he said.
Minister for liberation war affairs AKM Mozammel Haque will be the chief guest at a commemoration programme of ‘killing of soldiers and freedom fighters’ at Shawkat Osman Auditorium of Central Public Library at 11:00am today.
Khaled Mosharraf Bir Uttam Smriti Parishad will organise the programme.
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia on Sunday stressed the need for unity of all nationalist patriotic forces with the spirit of November 7, as she said the country’s sovereignty was in threat because of the current government’s subservient attitude to foreign nation.
In a message on the occasion of national revolution and solidarity day, Khaleda said that the ‘non-elected government’ was now clinging to power forcibly supressing the pro-democracy people in a cruel way and curbing the rights of opposition parties.