BNP begins countrywide protest
Friday, 10 April 2009
BNP launched countrywide demonstration Thursday with a rally in the capital's Naya Paltan party headquarters at 4pm, against the government's decision to cancel the lease of the cantonment house of Khaleda Zia, reports bdnews24.com.
Protest rallies will also be held in five divisional cities in the day, and in districts and upazilas across the country Saturday.
BNP office secretary Rizvi Ahmed earlier had said party secretary-general Khandker Delwar Hossain returned from Singpaore Wednesday night and would join the protest rally slated for 3pm.
The decision to stage demonstrations came from a meeting of BNP senior leaders, chaired by Khaleda Wednesday.
The government committed a heinous crime against humanity by canceling the lease of the house given away to widow of martyred president Ziaur Rahman, the party spokesman said.
A cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wednesday, decided to cancel the lease of the 6 Moinul Road bungalow in Dhaka Cantonment that was given to Khaleda Zia after the May 30, 1981 murder of her husband, BNP founder and army chief-turned-president Zia. Hasina argues that the house was allocated to Khaleda in violation of the Cantonment Board Law.
But a senior BNP leader in an immediate reaction said the government's decision was "abnormal" and "vindictive."
"It will create political instability in the country," Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury MP told reporters. "The people will never accept such an irresponsible decision, taken from a politically vindictive stance."
"It is not intelligible to me why the government is focusing on a martyr's family home when there are so many problems in the country, like power and employment to look at," said Chowdhury. "I believe the government has taken this decision to repay debts to certain quarters." It is the 'digital decision' of an 'abnormal' government, he added.
Protest rallies will also be held in five divisional cities in the day, and in districts and upazilas across the country Saturday.
BNP office secretary Rizvi Ahmed earlier had said party secretary-general Khandker Delwar Hossain returned from Singpaore Wednesday night and would join the protest rally slated for 3pm.
The decision to stage demonstrations came from a meeting of BNP senior leaders, chaired by Khaleda Wednesday.
The government committed a heinous crime against humanity by canceling the lease of the house given away to widow of martyred president Ziaur Rahman, the party spokesman said.
A cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wednesday, decided to cancel the lease of the 6 Moinul Road bungalow in Dhaka Cantonment that was given to Khaleda Zia after the May 30, 1981 murder of her husband, BNP founder and army chief-turned-president Zia. Hasina argues that the house was allocated to Khaleda in violation of the Cantonment Board Law.
But a senior BNP leader in an immediate reaction said the government's decision was "abnormal" and "vindictive."
"It will create political instability in the country," Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury MP told reporters. "The people will never accept such an irresponsible decision, taken from a politically vindictive stance."
"It is not intelligible to me why the government is focusing on a martyr's family home when there are so many problems in the country, like power and employment to look at," said Chowdhury. "I believe the government has taken this decision to repay debts to certain quarters." It is the 'digital decision' of an 'abnormal' government, he added.