BNP begins signature campaign

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Saturday began its signature campaign demanding the release of its chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia.

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir launched the programme from its Naya Paltan central office in the morning, reports UNB.

Standing committee members of the party put their signatures on a form as part of the programme.

On Friday, the party announced to hold a public rally in the city on 22 February to press home their demand.

The BNP, on Thursday, announced another round of peaceful countrywide protest programmes.

The programmes include collecting signatures from mass people across the country on Saturday, submitting memorandums to all the deputy commissioner offices on Sunday and staging demonstrations in all the district towns and metropolitan cities, except Dhaka, on Tuesday.

A makeshift court convicted former prime minister and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on 8 February.

She was then sent to the abandoned central jail at Nazimuddin Road in the city.

As part of the programmes, the party observed a token hunger strike on Wednesday while formed a human chain in front of the National Press Club on Monday and staged a sit-in programme in front of the party’s Naya Paltan central office on Tuesday.