BNP, allies mull tough progs if power, gas prices hiked

FE Team | Published: November 24, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

The BNP-led 20-party alliance has decided to announce tougher action programmes, including non-stop hartal, and gradually turn those into a decisive movement if the government hikes gas and power tariffs in January next, reports UNB.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the top leaders of the BNP-led opposition alliance on Saturday night with Khaleda in the chair at her Gulshan office, a 20-party leader who attended the meeting said wishing anonymity.
The alliance leaders also gave BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir the responsibility to announce the programmes in favour of it in consultation with Khaleda Zia.
The meeting also decided that they would mark December, the month of independence, in a befitting manner and would not announce any harsher programmes for the month.
The December over, the alliance will also announce harsher programmes in protest against the government's move to exclude pro-BNP genuine freedom fighters from the list of freedom fighters.
At the meeting, Khaleda sought commitments of the alliance leaders that they would be ready for any kind of sacrifice and would not leave the streets under any circumstances once she takes to the streets.
In reply, all the leaders assured her that they would stay on the streets braving the bullets and repressive acts.
"I asked my party's standing committee members whether they are ready to stay on the streets with me. They assured me of not leaving the streets in any situation. Will you be there with me on the
Streets?" an alliance leader quoted Khaleda as telling them. At one stage, the BNP chief slammed Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami for its low performance on the streets and in the BNP-led 20-party alliance.
She rebuked the Jamaat representative at the meeting saying, "You (Jamaat) talk too much but act less and remain absent in the field. You'd enforced hartals but your people were not there on the streets. Everything was normal," an Islamic party leader quoted Khaleda as saying.
The Jamaat leader Redwanullah Sahedi was silent at that time instead of trying to defend his party.
The alliance leaders said they would again sit after Khaleda's Comilla rally scheduled to be held on December 29 and finalise the action programmes and schedules.