The BNP-led 20-party alliance yesterday issued a fresh ultimatum, asking the government to either accept the mid-term polls demand by February 14 or face a countrywide nonstop strike in addition to the ongoing blockade.
In a statement, BNP Joint Secretary Salahuddin Ahmed said the 20-party combine would hold peaceful demonstrations in all upazilas, municipalities, district headquarters and cities across the country on February 14.
The alliance’s demands include an election under a non-partisan interim government, end to extra-judicial killings and repression of its leaders and activists, and release of those behind bars.
“If the government does not accept these demands, tougher programmes will be put in place from February 15 alongside the ongoing blockade,” Salahuddin said in the statement, which was emailed to the media yesterday.
The threat comes at a time when as the situation in the country appears to be returning to normality despite the blockade and hartals.
The BNP-led alliance enforced the nationwide transport blockade on January 6. Around 70 lives have so far been claimed by the violence that has since been following. Most of those people killed belong to the low income groups.
Salahuddin Ahmed has been in hiding for around a month. He took over the charge of the party’s spokesperson after another Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi got arrested last month.
Salahuddin, on behalf of party chief Khaleda Zia, urged law enforcers not to turn the country into a “dreadful place” just for the government to stay in power longer and claimed that their action programmes have been “peaceful.”
However, senior ministers and ruling Awami League leaders, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, have been repeatedly saying that no dialogue could take place with “criminals who are killing innocent people.”
Western diplomats, the United Nations and rights bodies have expressed concerns over the violence and loss of lives and asked all parties to refrain from destructive activities.
On Wednesday, following a one-hour meeting with Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan office where she had been holed up for more than a month, British High Commissioner Robert Gibson called upon all parties to fully consider the effects of their actions and refrain from damaging to nation’s interests.
Because of the political programmes, the schedule of several papers of the ongoing SSC examinations, one of the biggest public examinations in the country, had to be shifted.
Meanwhile, a citizens’ platform named “Nagorik Samaj” sent separate letters to President Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Seikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, urging them to hold talks to resolve the crisis.
The ruling Awami League ruled out the proposal, saying the masterminds of 1/11 have been hatching a conspiracy once again.