Jamaat-e-Islami Amir and opposition leader Dr Shafiqur Rahman said that the government now claiming legitimacy from the same day’s vote in which 70 percent of people gave their verdict in a referendum could not be accepted without that referendum. “If that referendum fails, this government will be failed too. The people will force you to accept that referendum, God willing,” he said. He made the remarks as chief guest at a divisional rally of the 11-party alliance at the Hemayet Uddin Eidgah ground in Barishal on Saturday (18 July) afternoon, held to demand implementation of the referendum verdict, relief from public hardship, control of commodity prices, and the overall development of the neglected south.
Addressing the BNP, Shafiqur Rahman said the party had not understood the caretaker government after coming to power after 1991, though it eventually did. “We say, do not understand it after harming the nation — understand it now. We do not want to stay on the streets like this. We all want to take part in building the country. But the way you are pushing us toward the streets, if the streets catch fire, much will be burned to ashes in that fire,” he said. He said 70 percent of the country’s people had said “yes” in the referendum, signalling they no longer wanted the rotten politics and governance of the past and wanted change, a new system of governance and a new Bangladesh. He accused the ruling party of forgetting the referendum after gaining power, and of now claiming it had never spoken of reform, saying the first of the party’s own 31-point demands was reform. He said no “constitution amendment committee” existed under the constitution and rules of procedure, calling such a committee, if formed, illegal, and warned against “trickery” over restoring the referendum provision through scrapping the 15th amendment.
Shafiqur Rahman said the people of the country had shed blood and given their lives from 2006 to 2024, been held in the “mirror house,” gone to jail under countless cases, and lost children and spouses, but had not bowed to fascism and had driven it out of Bangladesh. “However much you try, you cannot become that fascist Awami League; you can become dummy fascism,” he said, alleging the government had kept in place 133 ordinances passed under the previous rule. He said 1971 was a matter of pride and a golden part of the country’s history, but questioned why 1971 had to be dragged in to invoke 2024, saying both should keep their own dignity and that the nation would not tolerate any neglect of the heroes of 2024.
Others who spoke at the rally included Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) chairman Dr Colonel (retd) Oli Ahmad, Bir Bikram; National Citizen Party (NCP) convener and opposition chief whip Nahid Islam; Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish Amir Allama Mamunul Haque; AB Party chairman Mujibur Rahman Manju; Bangladesh Labour Party chairman Dr Mostafizur Rahman Iran; Jatiya Ganatantrik Party (JAGPA) vice-president and spokesman Engineer Rashed Pradhan; Bangladesh Nezam-e-Islam Party acting Amir Allama Abdul Kaiyum Subhani; and Bangladesh Development Party (BDP) chairman Advocate AKM Anwarul Islam Chan, along with central, district and city leaders of the 11-party alliance.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report