Awami League wants to assert more strength

Awami League, Chhatra League, Jubo League and associate organisations took to the streets across the country including Dhaka city after deciding to politically resist the students' one-point movement.

As the ruling party men used force, there were clashes between leaders and activists of the ruling party, police and protesters in various parts of the country, including Dhaka, on Sunday.

Several Awami League leaders said that the leaders and activists of the party have been instructed to continue to assert their strength for two to three more days.

The government came under immense pressure as the protests centering the quota reform movement could not be subsided despite deploying the army. The students changed their 9-point demand to one-point demand for the government’s resignation on Saturday.

AL sources said the party in several meetings on Saturday decided to quell the movement through using its political might. The AL leaders and activists took preparation to flex muscle on the streets on Saturday midnight. They started showing strength on Saturday midnight.

The ruling party men started to take to the streets from Sunday morning to suppress the movement. They were carrying sticks, machetes and local weapons. Some were seen using firearms. They were seen taking on the protesters alongside the law enforcers.

Awami League's policy-making level leaders said that on Saturday, Awami League president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina held a meeting with some top level leaders of the 14-party alliance. Several leaders who participated in the meeting said that the meeting took three days to deal with the situation politically. The party will take the next course of action after these three days.

The top leadership of Awami League contends that the quota reform movement has been transformed into a political movement by raising one-point demand. This movement is no longer in the hands of students. As a result, the government may gain some advantage if the movement is dealt with through political force.

Awami League sources said the party sent a message to its grassroots that it has become a question of existence after the call for Sheikh Hasina’s resignation was made. Therefore, the protesters must be removed from the streets at any cost.

Addressing journalists at Awami League president Sheikh Hasina's political office in Dhanmondi on Sunday, the party’s presidium member Jahangir Kabir Nanak said that the party has reached the end of its patience. He said being patient is not a weakness.

He said the one-point demand is actually made by BNP and Jamaat. Awami League has decided to resist the anarchists of the BNP-Jamaat at any cost. Usually Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader addresses the press briefings on behalf of the party, but Nanak did it in his stead on Sunday.

According to Awami League party sources, the general secretary of the party, policy makers and important ministers of the government spent the whole day at Ganabhaban, the prime minister's official residence yesterday. There were a spat of formal and informal meetings to determine the party’s next course of action.