Police bar 3 BNP bodies’ march towards Indian high commission

Police barred the march towards Indian High Commission organised by three affiliated bodies of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in the capital’s Rampura area on Sunday.

Later, representatives of the three organisations submitted a memorandum to the high commission.

Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, Jatiotabadi Jubodal, and Jatiotabadi Swechhasebak Dal organised the march to protest the attack on the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission in Agaartala, India, and the provocative propaganda against Bangladesh.

Leaders and activists of the three organisations gathered in front of the BNP central office in Nayapalatan around 10:00 am as part of the programme.

After a brief rally addressed by BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi there, they started marching toward the Indian High Commission in Dhaka around 11:30 am.

But the police stopped them when the march reached the Rampura bridge area.

Visiting the area, the police members were seen installing barricades on the Rampura bridge. Later, presidents and general secretaries of three organisations went to the Indian High Commission to submit the memorandum.

Vehicular movement stopped on both sides of the bridge due to police barricades, causing sufferings to commuters.

Meanwhile, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi addressed the brief rally prior to the start of the march. He said India is spreading disinformation and propaganda.

Saying that Sheikh Hasina stayed in power for 15 years with the blessings of India and she destroyed the electoral system and the election commission, he added that the people of India can choose their government and vote anyone they like. But India supports Sheikh Hasina who imprisoned and enslaved the people of Bangladesh.

The BNP senior joint secretary general also alleged that what the India is now doing to send Sheikh Hasina back to Bangladesh is nothing but a direct aggression in the parlance of political science.

“Does it mean you (India) do not respect the sovereignty and the independence of Bangladesh?” Ruhul Kabir Rizvi asked.

Taking a dig at the foreign policy of India, Rizvi said, “Why do they feel so sorry for Hasina? This is because, neither Bhutan nor Nepal or Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Maldives are with India any more. None can grow a friendship with them because whatever they say, whether secularity or non-communalism, there is nothing but extreme Hindutva in their mind.”

Referring to visa issues, the senior BNP leader said, “The closure of visa facilities for the people of Bangladesh has benefited them. People used to spend billions of dollars on it. Now billions of dollars will not be laundered and our dollars will not go to that country.”

“People of the country will now grow more food items that we used to import from India; thus, our dollars will not go to India anymore, and our foreign reserves will increase,” he added.