Leaders and activists of the opposition BNP’s Dhaka south and north city units on Friday brought out separate foot marches in Dhaka to press home the party’s 10-point demand, including holding the next polls under a non-party caretaker government, reports UNB.

The organisers said the march programme is also meant for registering the party’s protest against the rise in the prices of power and gas and essential items, repression on the opposition and mounting pressure on the government to release party chairperson Khaleda Zia without any condition.

As per the party’s plan, BNP’s Dhaka south city started a march from Matijheel to Nayabazar minutes after 4:00pm.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir along with party standing committee members Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and vice chairman Abdullah Al Noman took part after a brief address.

Through the silent march, Fakhrul said, they would send out a message to the city dwellers to wake up and put up a resistance against the current government’s misrule and repressive acts and failure to run the country and check the growing prices of essential items.

“The (Awami League) government has turned the country into a failed state. They badly destroyed the country and its institutions. The USA did not invite Bangladesh to its Summit for Democracy. It’s a matter of shame,” the BNP leader said.

He said that Awami League is basically a ‘terrorist party’ and it always wanted to cling to power by force. “BNP and the country’s people won’t go to any more polls under the Awami League government.”

Fakhrul said that the common people are gradually getting poorer while the ruling party leaders and activists were getting richer by indulging in corruption and plundering.

The BNP leader said that the government had been using law enforcers to hang onto power illegally by force. “The USA imposed sanctions on RAB as they indulged in extra-judicial killings at the behest of the government. They (govt) are now using police to kill the opposition leaders and activists and repress them.”

He also said that the constitution must be amended since the country’s problems could not be resolved in line with the current national charter.

Earlier, the leaders and activists of BNP’s Dhaka north city started a march from Uttara to Abdullahpur around 3:30pm.

BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain inaugurate the programme along with other party senior leaders, including Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan and Abdul Awal Mintoo.

In a brief address before taking out the procession, Mosharraf said that their party had been on the streets with different programmes to realise public demands and to protest public sufferings as people are going through a tough time due to the misrule of the Awami League government.

He said that their programmes were drawing huge public support, prompting the ruling party to come up with counter programmes out of fear of losing power. “Awami League is holding counter programmes, exposing its political bankruptcy.”

The BNP leader said that the people and the foreigners now could realise that no credible election could be held under the Awami League government. “That’s why foreign leaders and envoys are giving the government sermons about credible polls.”

Mosharraf urged the party leaders and activists to peacefully hold the programme as they did in the past without responding to any provocation.

Thousands of leaders and activists of BNP and its associate bodies joined the two separate programmes, carrying banners, national and party flags, festoons and portraits of the party’s top leaders.

A huge number of law enforcers have been deployed in the areas to maintain law and order and fend off any untoward incidents.

Apart from BNP, LPD, Gonoforum, People’s Party, Jatiyatabadi Samamona Jote and Peshajibi Ganatantrik Jote also staged the march programme in different areas of the capital at different times on Friday as part of the simultaneous movement to oust the current government.

BNP’s all others metropolitan city units will hold a similar programme on Saturday.