Maya taunts Khaleda, urges her to quit as BNP chief

FE Team | Published: September 23, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Disaster Management Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya urged Khaleda Zia Monday to quit BNP chairperson's post for what he said her failure to rally her party followers on the streets by calling a hartal, reports UNB.
"The entire Dhaka city was under Awami League's (AL) control. BNP enforced the hartal, but the AL men were there on the streets. Khaleda Zia failed to rally her party leaders and activists on the streets. So she should resign," he said.
Maya, also the general secretary of AL Dhaka city unit, said this while addressing an anti-hartal gathering in front of AL office at Bangabandhu Avenue organised by Sammilito Awami Samarthak Gosthi.
Pointing at Khaleda Zia, he said, "You've lost the ground beneath your feet. Now there'll be no dialogue…there'll be no election before 2019."
Awami League publicity and publication secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud said Khaleda Zia enforced Monday's hartal in a bid to resist the imminent split of her party-led alliance.
Awami League Dhaka city unit vice-president Foyez Uddin Miah, among others, spoke at the programme held with Sammilita Awami Samarthak Gosthi convener Abdul Haque in the chair.
Meanwhile, State Minister for Home Affairs Assaduzzaman Khan Kamal said Monday people rejected the BNP-led 20-party alliance's daylong countrywide hartal as it was an issueless one.
"People didn't respond to the shutdown …they rejected it," he said while talking to reporters at his secretariat office at 12:00 noon.
The shutdown had been unsuccessful as it was an issueless one, the minister said adding that normal life was not hampered in any way due to the hartal.
Asked about the European Parliament's recent resolution urging the Bangladesh authorities to put an end to RAB's impunity, the state minister said, "We won't do anything as prescribed by foreign countries."
Kamal, however, said action will be taken against RAB officials if they are found guilty of any foul play.
In their resolution Thursday, the members of European Parliament also said human rights violations by RAB members should stop.