The Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Sunday said the army would not sit back and watch but would ‘play its role in time’ when people were being killed ‘indiscriminately’ by the government.
She asked the people to
get prepared for a ‘march towards Dhaka’ if necessary to oust the ‘oppressive, killer, autocratic and corrupt’ government.
Khaleda addressing public meetings in Bogra and Joypurhat said that the next programmes of the ‘oust-government’ movement would be announced today.
The public meetings were organised in protest against those killed in police firing in the recent violence over the death sentence handed down to Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee by an international crimes tribunal for the war crimes he had committed in 1971.
Addressing a wayside meeting at Matidali Biman crossing at Bogra, Khaleda thanked the ‘men and women of Bogra’ for taking to the streets against the government ‘atrocities’ in the first week of March.
She said army was deployed but they did not act against the people and thanked the army for it.
‘Army has a responsibility to the country. They would not sit back and watch the killing of people. The army will play their role in time,’ Khaleda told a rally at Matidali.
She said Bangladesh army personnel were deployed as peacekeepers by the United Nations in different countries.
The BNP chairperson said people at home and abroad would become critical when they would see the army taking part in UN peacekeeping mission had no peace in their own country.
She said it was a matter to think about. Khaleda said BNP and its allies had waged a movement for an election-time non-party neutral government but now they had started an ‘oust-government’ campaign after the ‘killing of people like birds’ by the government.
‘This government has no right to stay in power,’ she said adding that a ‘strong’ movement would be built up to ‘dislodge’ the government.
She urged the people to join the next course of action she would announce today.
Khaleda urged the people not to shed any more tears and instead build up a ‘strong’ resistance against the government. ‘If necessary the whole country would be immobilised,’ she warned.
Addressing another public meeting at Shalaipur High School ground at Panchbibi in Joypurhat, Khaleda said the days of the government was numbered. ‘A little more push will bring down this government and it is now a matter of time.’
Khaleda threatened to create a situation that would force the government to quit power.
She urged the people to march to Dhaka again, if necessary like her party’s ‘Dhaka Chalo’ programme in March last year.
‘This time you will return to your respective districts after pulling down the government,’ she told the gathering at Panchbibi.
She urged the people to get prepared for the next programme to ‘free’ the country from the ‘clutches of autocratic and killer government’.
Khaleda warned the government of dire consequences if it tried to foil the opposition’s programmes.
She also asked the police not to kill any more on people saying that the government was losing the ground beneath its feet.
Referring to the recent killings in police firing, the opposition leader said it seemed the people of another country were killing the people of Bangladesh.
She said the way killings were taking place reminded one of the killings committed by the Pakistani occupation forces. ‘There is no difference between the Awami League and the Pakistani forces.’
Khaleda said more than 170 people had been killed in 15 days. She claimed that internationally the killings were described as ‘genocide’.
Referring to the interviews of the son of the former BDR chief Major General Shakil Ahmed, who was slain in the February 2009 Pilkhana mutiny, she claimed that the incumbent prime minister and her nephew Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh had advance information of the massacre at the BDR headquarters.
Khaleda said the prime minister would have to answer for the killing of 57 army officers at Pilkhana.
The BNP chairperson distributed money among the families of those killed recently in ‘police firing’ at Matidali, Panchbibi and Shajahanpur.
BNP leaders, including Moudud Ahmed, Jamiruddin Sircar, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Moazzem Hossain Alal and Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, among others, addressed the meetings.
Bogra BNP president Saiful Islam presided over the Matidali rally while Joypurhat district BNP president Majhar Ali Prodhan presided over the Pachbibi meeting.
The BNP chairperson also visited a temple damaged by miscreants at Sonarai union in Gabtoli upazila and also met the families of those killed at Rameshpur union in Gabtoli. (Source)
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