AGAILJHARA — Hindu community members of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) held a human chain and protest rally Friday demanding the party change its nominee for the Barishal-1 (Gournadi-Agailjhara) parliamentary seat.
The hour-long protest was held at 10:30 a.m. at the Agailjhara town center under the banner of the Hindu community.
Hundreds of Hindu men and women, along with BNP and affiliate organization activists from the constituency, took part. They alleged thousands of Hindu men and women in the area were attacked and tortured after the 2001 election.
Speaking at the human chain, which was chaired by Hindu community leader Nabin Sarker, Rabindranath Gain said the person named in BNP’s draft list — Zahir Uddin Swapan — had made disparaging remarks about Ziaur Rahman’s family and the party during the one-eleven period. He said the highest number of attacks on minorities in this constituency had occurred while Swapan was a member of parliament.
The protesters demanded that Swapan’s nomination be canceled and that engineer Abdus Sobhan be nominated instead.
Among those present at the rally were Dr. Mahbubul Islam, former organizing secretary and current joint secretary of the Agailjhara upazila BNP, along with other BNP and affiliate organization activists.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report