BNP, Mancha to launch simultaneous movement

As the Ganatantra Mancha, an alliance of seven political parties, announced on Monday that it would wage a street movement simultaneously with the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party from December 24 on the basis of common demands, the country is likely to witness the beginning of a greater movement for democracy.

The Ganatantra Mancha announced its 14-point demands on Monday, including the resignation of the government, dissolving the parliament and forming an interim government to hold a free and fair election, after the BNP at its December 10 mass rally in the capital called on all opposition parties to join its December 24 countrywide demonstration to back its 10-point demands.

The development came at a time when the fight between the BNP and the ruling Awami League as well as the government took a new dimension after BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam, party standing committee member Mirza Abbas and 222 other BNP leaders and activists were denied bail by a Dhaka court in a case over the clash between police and party people at Naya Paltan on Wednesday.

‘Today, we have announced 14-point demands and we will participate soon in a simultaneous movement with the BNP,’ Ganatantra Mancha spokesperson and Nagorik Oikya president Mahmudur Rahman Manna said on Monday at a press conference in Dhaka.

Ganatantra Mancha insiders, however, told New Age that it would hold a demonstration simultaneously with the BNP on December 24, but the alliance will make an announcement about the demonstration after a liaison committee with the BNP is formed before December 24.

At the press conference, Manna demanded an immediate release of Fakharul and other leaders and activists of the BNP.

Most of the demands put forward by the Gantantra Mancha and the BNP are similar while the Gantantra Mancha has some other demands concerning state reforms, including a balance of power between the president and the prime minister.

Both entities demand the dissolution of Jatiya Sangsad, resignation of the government, formation of a neutral polls-time interim government for a free, fair and credible national election and reconstitution of the Election Commission.

Meanwhile, BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain on Monday alleged that police committed ‘unimaginable’ destruction and vandalism at the party’s Naya Paltan central office beside taking away money from the office during a raid on Wednesday.

Speaking at a press briefing after inspecting the five-storey party office, room by room, accompanied by senior party leaders, Mosharraf said, ‘In the month of victory, the BNP office was ransacked and looted by the police. They resorted to terrorism nakedly and with unimaginable brutality.’

The BNP leader said that police broke into the party chairperson’s room on the first floor, vandalised everything and destroyed all photos in the room.

The police team, he went on to say, also took away all the computer CPUs, hard disks, printers and all other equipment and important documents from the office.

The government’s aggressive attitude to the BNP central office has, he observed, demonstrated that it is a fascist, terrorist and usurper regime.

A delegation from the Ganatantra Mancha, led by Mhmudur Rahman Manna, also visited the BNP Naya Paltan central office on the day.

Ganatantra Manch leaders termed the police actions at the BNP central office as an example of ‘state terrorism’.

The political culture the Awami League has introduced is terrible and the party is inciting a civil war, they observed.

Apart from Manna, Revolutionary Workers Party of Bangladesh general secretary Saiful Haque, Ganosamhati Andolan chief coordinator Zonayed Saki, Bhashani Onusari Parishad convener Sheikh Rafiqul Islam Bablu, Gono Odhikar Parishad member secretary Nurul Haque Noor and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-JSD general secretary Shaheed Uddin Mahmud Swapan visited the BNP office.

BNP standing committee member Iqbal Hasan Mahmud, vice-chairman Mohammad Shahjahan and acting office secretary Syed Emran Saleh Prince were among the BNP leaders present at the time.

The BNP is scheduled to stage a countrywide demonstration today demanding the release of BNP leaders and activists and in protest of the police action against party people in front of the Naya Paltan office on Wednesday and later.

Besides, the Left Democratic Alliance, a combine of six political parties, is also scheduled to hold a countrywide demonstration protesting against the attacks on opposition political parties and for the restoration of the people’s voting right and the democratic system in the country.

On Sunday, LDA coordinator and Communist Party of Bangladesh general secretary Ruhin Hossian Prince told New Age that the alliance was going to step up its anti-government movement with a view to realising its 10-point demands it announced in October.

News Courtesy:

https://www.newagebd.net/article/188951/bnp-mancha-to-launch-simultaneous-movement