The BNP-led 20-party alliance is likely to hold public rallies on January 2 and 5 to mount pressure on the government to hold national election under a non-partisan government.
The alliance’s movement to topple the government would get a new dimension if they were denied to hold the rallies in the capital, said party insiders, because in that case tough programmes such as hartals and blockades would be enforced.
BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, BNP chairperson’s Adviser Abdul Awal Mintoo, Standing Committee member Mirza Abbas, Dhaka city unit BNP Member Secretary Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel last night held an hour long meeting with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan residence.
A senior leader of the party told the Dhaka Tribune that these decisions were made in that meeting.
On Saturday, a few senior BNP leaders planned the programmes and then went to meet Khaleda to finalise those.
Fakhrul is scheduled to hold a meeting with the general secretaries of the BNP-led 20-party alliance members today at the Nayapaltan BNP office and the decisions might be announced at the meeting.
Party insiders said they would seek permission to hold the rallies either in Suhrawardy Udyan or in front of the party’s Nayapaltan headquarters.
“If the government denies us the permission to hold the rallies, hartal and blockade-like programmes might be announced,” a senior leader said.
Apart from these, the BNP is also planning a huge showdown in the capital on January 24 as party Chairperson Khaleda Zia will go to court to appear in a corruption case related to the Zia orphanage and Zia Charitable Trust on that day.
Party insiders said as the party chief would go to the lower court, thousands of party leaders and activists would throng the court premises to stage a demonstration.
To make the showdown a success, leaders of the Dhaka city unit BNP and the party’s front and associate bodies held a closed-door meeting at the party’s Nayapaltan headquarters yesterday afternoon.
On Saturday, a number of senior leaders had met with acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, following which Fakhrul held a meeting with Khaleda. Yesterday, too, Khaleda held a meeting with the leaders of her party’s city unit and front and associate bodies.
Dhaka city unit Convener Mirza Abbas, Member Secretary Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel, Jubo Dal President Moazzem Hossain Alal, General Secretary Saiful Alam Nirob, Swechchhasebak Dal General Secretary Sharafat Ali Shofu, Organising Secretary Shafiul Bari Babu, Mohila Dal President Noor-e-Ara Safa, General Secretary Shirin Sultana,and presidents and general secretaries of other front and associate bodies attended the meeting yesterday.
Meeting sources said the party had planned to gather 100,000 people on December 24 and a few thousands more from adjacent districts. They said the local party units had already been directed to make preparations for the gathering in the capital.
A leader of a front body told the Dhaka Tribune, seeking anonymity, that if law enforcers barred them on December 24, they would resist it.
Mirza Fakhrul is scheduled to hold a meeting with the general secretaries of the BNP-led 20-party alliance members today at the Nayapaltan BNP office.
On September 22, the trial began against Khaleda and eight others in the corruption cases.
Khaleda, her eldest son Tarique Rahman, BNP founder Ziaur Rahman’s nephew Mominur Rahman, Khaleda’s former principal secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, BNP’s former lawmaker Kazi Salimul Haque Kamal and businessman Sharfuddin Ahmed are accused in the Zia Orphanage Trust case.
The three other accused are Harris Chowdhury, Khaleda’s former political secretary, Ziaul Islam Munna, assistant private secretary of Harris, and Monirul Islam Khan, APS of former Dhaka City Corporation mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka.
The ACC filed the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case in 2009 for embezzlement of over Tk2.1 crore by forming a fake trust which existed only on paper.
The anti-corruption watchdog filed another case in 2011, accusing four people, including Khaleda Zia, of abusing power in setting up the Zia Charitable Trust.
BNP leaders including Khaleda have repeatedly alleged that the government has been filing false cases against the party leaders and activists to keep them away from the election and withdrawing cases filed against the Awami League men. They also allege that the government has withdrawn some 8,000 cases filed against ruling party men including 15 cases against Awami League President Sheikh Hasina.
On Saturday night, Fakhrul also held a meeting with a few leaders of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the students body of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, at Khaleda’s Gulshan office.
The Shibir team led by Yeasin Arafat, literary affairs secretary of Shibir, gave Fakhrul several publications of the organisation including a pamphlet titled “Islami Chhatra Shibir: victims of state-sponsored terrorism,” said a press release of Shibir.
