Staff Reporter :
The BNP will observe a token hunger strike in Dhaka on Monday from 9:00am to 4:00pm in the Mohanagar Natya Mancha, Gulistan in the capital.
“We have called for the token hunger strike to protest imprisonment of our party Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia. So, we have demanded her immediate release,” BNP Senior Joint-Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said it in a press briefing at the party’s Nayapaltan central office in the city.
He urged party leaders and activists to join the programme in time. The programme was announced last Monday for observing in the metropolitan cities and district headquarters across the country.
The party also held protest rally in the thanas in the capital on Sunday, demanding Khaleda Zia’s immediate release and proper treatment.
The BNP leader criticised also the role of Indian High Commission in Dhaka in the imprisonment of Khaleda Zia in a ‘false’ case.
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said Khaleda Zia’s foreign Legal Consultant Lord Carlile during his visit wanted to address a news conference in the Foreign Correspondent Club of New Delhi on July 13 over the BNP chief’s case and sentencing her to jail.
“But the Indian High Commission in Dhaka recommended strongly for not issuing Visa to Lord Carlile. The recommendation says that the High Commission had a role in dealing with Khaleda Zia by the government in false case,” Rizvi said.
He said, the role of the High Commission is unfortunate and aggressive and interference in Bangladesh’s internal politics.
The BNP leader said that a daily on Saturday published a report quoting high level source from New Delhi that Indian High Commission in Dhaka had sent strong recommendation to New Delhi for not allowing Khaleda’s legal consultant Lord Carlile in India.
Rizvi said all these in a news briefing in the morning.
Replying to query in a further press briefing in the afternoon, Rizvi said, ‘the BNP always wants good relation with all neighbours including India.’
“Indian government is elected by their voters there, so we hope they will maintain relation with the people of Bangladesh, and not with an unelected government,” he said.
He also criticised Prime Minister’s Advisor HT Imam for his call to Indian government not to support BNP.
“It is the people of our country as to who will form the government here, but HT Imam and likewise persons forget that,” the BNP leader said.
