report in Prothom Alo, Sept 12, 2023
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) will hold several rallies and five road marches in this month as the party then plans to culminate the final movement in October.
Sources said the BNP leadership considers September as the final stage of mass campaign ahead of the party’s final movement to topple the government.
As part of this, the party will hold a rally in Dhaka on Friday and youth road marches in different parts of the country from Saturday.
BNP sources said they want to engage youth with the anti-government movement. Alongside the final stage of movement, BNP leaders are also observing the role of judiciary.
BNP leaders think the government is using the judiciary as a weapon to stifle the voice of opposition. The courts are handing down sentences to scores of leaders-activists of BNP and other opposition parties ahead of the election.
BNP sources said the party would hold rally in the city’s Naya Paltan on Friday protesting sentence of BNP leaders-activists in ‘false’ cases.
The party sent a letter to Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) on Sunday seeking a permission for the rally. DMP is yet to give the permission to the rally slated to be organised jointly by Dhaka city south and north units of BNP.
Dhaka city north BNP’s member secretary Aminul Haque told Prothom Alo on Monday night, “BNP Dhaka city north unit’s convener Amanullah Aman has been sent to jail after a court sentenced him in a false case. Many leaders-activists including Dhaka city south unit’s member secretary Rafiqul Alam, joint convener Tanvir Ahmed and central leader Salahuddin Ahmed have been jailed. The rally would be organized protesting against this.”
Three associate bodies of BNP—Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal, Swechhasebak Dal and Chhatra Dal—will hold six youth marches in six divisional cities in June and July. These three associate organisations of BNP will now hold five youth road marches in five divisional cities—Chattogram, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet and Rangpur. The programme would start from Rangpur on 16 September and end the last road march will be held in Chattogram on 30 September.
Sources said the youth march will start from Rangpur city and travel to Dinajpur through Syedpur’s Dosh Mail area.
On 17 September, the march will start from Bogura and travel to Rajshahi via Santahar and Naogaon. After three days, on 21 September, another youth march will start from Bhairab Bazar in Kishoreganj and travel through Brahmanbaria, Habiganj and Moulvibazar and end in Sylhet.
On 26 September, another youth march will begin from Jhenaidah and travel to Khulna via Jashore and Noapara. On 30 September, the final road march will begin from Cumilla and reach Chattogram touching Feni and Mirsharai.
Earlier on 22 July BNP hold a youth rally in Dhaka’s Suhrawardy Udyan after successfully holding five youth rallies in divisional cities. The announcement for 28 August rally was made from that rally.
Sources said the BNP leadership sees these youth marches as ‘special programme’ ahead of the final push for gearing up the ongoing ‘one point’ movement to topple the government.
Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal’s secretary Saif Mahmud told Prothom Alo, “We organised youth rallies to engage the youth who are deprived of their voting rights with the ongoing movement. Now we’ve taken up this youth road march programme to inspire the youth of the country ahead of the final stage of movement.”
Sources said the BNP leadership sees these youth marches as ‘special programme’ ahead of the final push for gearing up the ongoing ‘one point’ movement to topple the government. https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/politics/cnsoeyv9o5
