Leaders and activists of the Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party alliance took position outside the Secretariat after a march following a sit-in at Muktangan in the capital, held over 11 demands including implementation of the referendum verdict. On the way there, they faced a police barricade, and some scuffling occurred.
The 11-party alliance faced police resistance while trying to besiege the Secretariat in protest at the fuel and gas crisis, “phantom” power bills, a worsening law-and-order situation and the unchecked price rise of daily essentials.
On Thursday (6 August) afternoon, after ending the sit-in at Muktangan in the capital, the leaders and activists set out in a march for the Secretariat at about 12:40pm.
As soon as the march crossed Zero Point, police stopped it with a barricade.
After about 20 minutes there, opposition leader and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami chief Dr Shafiqur Rahman said at the sit-in: “We have come to press the people’s demands. They did not respond to our call. It takes them less than five minutes to come from the Secretariat, but they did not come.”
He then announced a further five minutes at the spot, saying that if no one came within that time, they would end the programme by condemning the government.
Present at the programme were Dr Shafiqur Rahman; Liberal Democratic Party president Col (retd) Oli Ahmad Bir Bikram; Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general and former MP Mia Golam Parwar; assistant secretary general and former MP Dr Hamidur Rahman Azad; JAGPA vice-president and spokesman Engineer Rashed Prodhan; and other top 11-party alliance leaders.
Earlier, the 11-party alliance had begun its sit-in in the rain, in protest at the fuel and gas crisis, “phantom” power bills and price hikes, a severe deterioration in law and order, and the unchecked rise in the prices of daily essentials.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report