The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has started a token hunger strike in front of the BNP central office in Naya Paltan at 11am on Saturday.
The hunger strike has been initiated to demand the resignation of the current Awami League government and the dissolution of parliament, elections under a non-partisan neutral government, unconditional release of former prime minister and BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia and sending her abroad for better medical treatment.
The hunger strike will continue till 2pm on the initiative of BNP and Dhaka Metropolitan North and South BNP as a program of joint movement.
Members of the National Standing Committee including BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir are present in the mass hunger strike program.
Also present are senior party leaders, allied organizations and professional leaders.
Apart from Dhaka, the district BNP is conducting this mass hunger strike program in every district of the country.
On Monday last, BNP held rallies across the country, including in front of its central office in the capital, to press the same demand.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, the 78-year-old former prime minister, has been undergoing treatment at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka under the supervision of a 15-member medical board, led by a specialist doctor, Professor Shahabuddin Talukder, since August 9.
The medical board at a press conference recently recommended that she be urgently sent to a multidisciplinary centre abroad soon as there are now no treatment options available for her in Bangladesh.
Khaleda has been suffering from various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, kidney, lung, heart, and eye problems.
On September 5, Khaleda’s brother Shamim Iskandar submitted an application to the government to take her abroad for treatment, but it was turned down.
