Jamaat-e-Islami Amir and opposition leader Dr. Shafiqur Rahman has vowed that the government will be forced to implement the verdict of the referendum. He was speaking as chief guest at an 11-party alliance rally on a four-point demand at the Rangpur Zilla School ground on Saturday (July 11) afternoon.
The rally was held to demand implementation of the Teesta master plan, effective steps to implement the referendum’s verdict, an end to border killings and push-ins, and relief from public hardship. “A great deal is being said to move us away from the demand to implement the referendum,” the Jamaat chief said. “Let us be clear – we cannot betray the nation. We promised the nation that we would keep fighting and would force the referendum to be implemented, God willing. We will not move an inch from this.”
Shafiqur Rahman said the country’s young people had fought to end discrimination, bid farewell to Bangladesh’s “rotten politics” and build a new Bangladesh, and that the referendum on reforms had been held for that purpose. He claimed the current prime minister had, at one point, said he would cast two votes – one for his own party and one “yes” in the referendum – and had kept the first promise but not the second.
On the Teesta, he said the current ruling party had run a “Jago Bahe, Teesta Bachao” (Wake up, save the Teesta) movement before the election, but that there was not even 10 taka allocated for the Teesta in the budget. “We do not want a shower of words; we want to see real steps,” he said. If the government failed, he added, the 11-party alliance would form a government in the future – with the people’s support and votes – and implement the demand.
On border tensions, the Jamaat chief said neighboring India was provoking along the long border while the government “sat with its mouth shut.” The people were not only protesting but resisting, fighting alongside BGB soldiers, he said, congratulating them as “heroes.” The government had not said a word on the matter, he said: “Out of fear of whom, and to please whom? Try to understand the pulse of the people of Bangladesh. Please do not take a stand against the will of the people” – adding that everyone should “learn a lesson from recent history.” There could be no “dilly-dallying” on the Teesta, he said, and the Teesta project must be implemented.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report