KHALEDA BAIL PLEA REJECTION Countrywide BNP demo faces obstruction

Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Saturday staged countrywide demonstrations amid obstructions at various places, including Narayanganj, protesting against the rejection of the party’s ailing chairperson Khaleda Zia’s bail prayer and demanding her immediate release.

The demonstrations, announced within an hour of Khaleda’s bail prayer rejection by a High Court bench on Thursday, were scheduled to be held in all cities and district towns across the country on Saturday.

The central programme was scheduled to be held at 2:00pm at BNP central office but ahad to be cancelled for want of police permission, the party senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said in a press conference.

He announced that the BNP would hold demo in all the thana areas of the capital today protesting against ‘police intervention against holding Dhaka rally’.

A huge number of police personnel were deployed in front of the party office since the morning.

The party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir came to the party office at about 11:00am, saw police personnel and asked them to stay away from the party office and told waiting journalists that the government was governing the country by suppressing the people.

Terming the government ‘autocratic’ and ‘without mandate of people’, he alleged that the government was not allowing the party to hold rallies as people’s rights have been snatched. 

He alleged that Khaleda was seriously ill and was not given bail due to conspiracy against her and said that they were trying to free Khaleda by mobilising the people.

Asked about his November 24 comment that they would no more seek permission from police to hold rallies, he said, ‘We have been trying our best within our own capacity.’

In the rallies in cities and district towns, BNP leaders alleged that Khaleda was not given bail as per direction from the government as part of the politics of vengeance.

They alleged that the government had kept her in jail as the prime minister wanted to eliminate her main competitor to remain in power illegally.

They vowed for unity in the party and to organise tough movements to free Khaleda.

In Narayanganj, city BNP procession was postponed as police obstructed the BNP leaders and activists at Chashara in the city.

No sooner had the procession led by city BNP general secretary ATM Kamal began marching, the police stopped it, snatched their banner and later dispersed them by chasing them away when they tried to advance defying police obstacle. 

In Khulna, the city and district BNP held a rally in front of their party office at KD Ghosh Road in the city in the morning.

In Sylhet, the city and district units of BNP jointly brought out a procession from the Subhanighat area that ended in a short rally at Bandar Bazar in the city.

BNP also held demonstrations at Rajshshi, Barishal, Rangpur, Jashore, Lakshmipur, Gazipur, and Feni, New Age correspondents reported.

Khaleda is in jail since February 8, 2018, since she was convicted in a graft case. She was shifted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University on April 1, 2019 and was undergoing treatment there since then.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net