A two-day national dialogue kicks off today which aims to reach a consensus among stakeholders of the student-led popular uprising on reforms and elections.
Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus will join the event virtually while family members of the victims of the July movement will inaugurate it.
Forum for Bangladesh Studies is arranging the two-day event in six separate sessions against the backdrop of growing disagreement after the uprising at the Krishibid Institution in the city, organisers said at a news conference on Thursday.
Leaders of political parties, including Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Jamaat-e-Islami, representatives from newly-formed student platform, student leaders of the July movement, student bodies of different political parties, economists, academics, political analysts and other stakeholders of the July movement will participate in the event.
A team led by BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir would join the dialogue. Family members of the injured and martyrs of the July uprising will participate in the inaugural event.
There is a difference of opinion among the participants of the July movement, but it should not sow the seeds of division, political analyst Dr. Zahed Ur Rahman, a key member of the platform, said. "We need reforms and an election, which will be discussed at the dialogue," he said
Demanding justice for martyrs in the July mass uprising and some other issues will be top of the agenda at the event. "As deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her party were involved in the killing, we didn't invite Awami League to the dialogue," journalist Monir Haidar, another organiser said. He expressed the hope that this discussion will help narrow the gap among the stakeholders of the July movement.
"We are opening a platform to allow people to speak and try to reach a consensus," said Director General of Press Institute of Bangladesh Faruque Wasif, also a journalist.
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