Amar Bangladesh Party, AB Party, held a protest rally and a meeting on Saturday morning at Bijoy 71 Square, calling for the government's resignation and the transfer of power to an interim election-time government in order to hold a free, fair, credible, and participatory national election.
Shortly before concluding the event, the gathering faced police action.
AB Party strongly denounced the indiscriminate and unprovoked use of ammunition and rubber bullets, deeming them unnecessary.
Anwar Sadat Tutul, senior Assistant Member Secretary, moderated the meeting.
AFM Solaiman Chowdhury, convenor of AB Party and a retired bureaucrat, presided over the protest meeting where Prof Dr Abdul Wahab Minar, Adv Tajul Islam, joint convenors, Mojibur Rahman Monju, member secretary, Asaduzzaman Fuaad, Zubair Ahmed Bhuiyan, barrister-at-law, and joint member secretary spoke as guests.
Prof Dr Wahab Minar said the nation is sick and tired of seeing this regime’s misrule for around 17 years.
“Although the government cannot handle public health issues like dengue, it continuously carries crackdowns on opposition forces,” he added.
Tajul Islam said the regime came back to its old oppressive form. “Police shamefully attacked the peaceful protesters indiscriminately wounding dozens from AB Party. The law enforcement agencies are actively engaged in dispersing the pro-democracy crowd.”
Mojibur Rahman Monju said that this autocratic government had surpassed all the records over corruption, robbery, loot, plunder, and human rights violations. This regime had oppressed tens of thousands of religious scholars and dispossessed Hindu minorities of their ancestral homes and properties.
“They destroyed the sanctity of our constitution for the last 15 years. So now is the high time to resign without any further delay,” he added.
Asaduzzaman Fuaad said that this regime kept this land and 200 million people under siege like the Palestinians for the last 17 years. “Like the Boston Tea Party, we would like to warn this regime that there would be no ‘taxation without representation’.”
Zubair Ahmed Bhuiyan said this round of fascism was born on October 28, 2016.
“Like an octopus, this regime had eaten every state institution away turning them into a dysfunctional one.”
AFM Solaiman Chowdhury, in his concluding speech, said Awami League has killed tens of thousands of people and imprisoned millions of opposition activists over the last fifteen years only to stay in power.
