UNB, Dhaka :The BNP-led 20-party looks firm to continue its ongoing blockade programme for a longer period and turn it into a non-cooperation movement to force the government to come up with a genuine dialogue offer for holding a snap inclusive national election.Senior leaders of the alliance said they have no other option but to carry out a noon-stop movement with tougher programmes as they have reached the point of no return since the government is trying to cling to power for five years “breaching its promise to told hold the 11th parliamentary polls within a short time”.BNP leaders said, their party chief Khaleda Zia is very optimistic that their ongoing non-stop movement will surely yield quick positive results and she is ready to face any circumstances to make the agitation a success this time.They, however, said the 20-party will only consider calling off their movement only when the government will announce to sit in talks with the specific agenda of holding snap polls.Otherwise, the BNP leaders said, they will intensify the movement after the second-phase of Biswa Ijtema, to be concluded on Sunday by adding programmes like nonstop hartal to the ongoing blockade programme and finally turn it into a non-cooperation movement.”We’ve given the government one year’s time to take steps to hold a fresh election through talks as per its commitment it had given before the 10th parliamentary election. But it did nothing to this end rather resorted to repressive acts to subdue the opposition to secure its power,” said BNP standing committee member Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman.He said, the government has forced them to take harder action programme like non-stop blockade by snatching their all democratic rights and space and besieging their party chief. “So, we’ve no alternative to continuing the blockade and intensifying our movement until our demand is met.”Asked whether they will withdraw the blockade if the government comes up with a proposal for dialogue, Mahbub said, “Dialogue is the language of democracy and it’s very crucial now to overcome the current political deadlock and we’ve long been calling upon the government to engage in talks, but they have been ignoring it. We’ll withdraw our blockade if they sincerely give a proposal for genuine talks.”BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said their party chairperson is struck to her stance on carrying out non-stop and tougher movement until their victory comes, no matter how much time it takes.He said, the government should immediately take initiatives for holding an effective and meaningful dialogue for arranging a fair and inclusive election to restore democracy and install a government of people.
