BNP mulls fresh demo to free Khaleda

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is uniting its activists to wage a movement to free party chief Khaleda Zia, say senior party leaders.

The leaders said they would go for different demonstration programmes across the country.

“We will continue staging demonstrations until Khaleda Zia is freed,” BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury told Prothom Alo. 

BNP policymakers said that they felt embarrassed for failing to organise tough agitation programmes to press home the demand for the release of Khaleda, the former prime minister who has been in jail for about 20 months in an alleged corruption case. BNP, however, termed the case as politically motivated.

BNP is scheduled to organise human chains in Dhaka today (Wednesday) and across the country on Thursday.

The party will hold rallies in Sylhet on 21 September, in Mymenshingh on 26 September and in Rajshahi on 29 September.

The BNP leaders said they would organise rallies in other districts, including Rangpur, in phases.

Moreover, the party has prioritised reconstituting its associate bodies, including Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), the student wing of the party.

At the moment, the BNP is focusing on the national council of JCD.

The council is scheduled to be held on 14 September.

The BNP policymakers think discipline will be restored in JCD if the leaders are elected through a transparent voting system.

The activities of JCD have become ineffective as non-students and aged leaders are at the helm, they added.

Elections to the posts of JCD president and general secretary will be held on 14 September. There are 580 councilors in this year’s council.