On the sidelines

Senior Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders were unhappy at the poor participation of the party's Dhaka city unit people in the eight-hour mass hunger strike they held at the Institution of Engineers in the capital on Wednesday.

Talking on the sidelines, some of the leaders thanked God as people from outside Dhaka reached the venue in time.

They also expressed their dissatisfaction at the 'poor performance' of the city convening committee in mobilising people as most of the units reached the venue after the arrival of the party chairperson.

The leaders put the blame for the poor performance on the conflict between the city unit convener, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, also mayor of Dhaka, and the party's standing committee member Mirza Abbas.

'They did nothing,' a member of the party's executive committee said. 'If people from Bogra can arrive by the morning, what have they done?'

A leader from Bogra, Helaluzzman Talukder Lalu, who was standing next to him, proudly claimed that they had mobilised so many people that it required them to hire five buses.

The leaders said most of the participants arrived from districts around Dhaka.

Although it as a hunger strike programme, lower-tier activists gathered at shops of drinks in the scorching heat.

Some senior leaders, including three advisers to the party chairperson, took lunch inside the Institution of Engineers and they said that they were having some snacks as they would need to stay till the end of the programme.

A number of small parties expressed their solidarity with the programme, demanding expansion of the BNP-led alliance.

Two leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party — former minister Redwan Ahmed and Shahadat Hossain — arrived at the place and expressed their solidarity.

But the BNP leaders seemed to be upset as nobody from Bikalpadhara Bangladesh or Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Janata League attended.

They were contacted from the BNP's upper echelon and the acting secretary general had met the Bikalpadhara chief, AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, on Tuesday night.

In addition to politicians, performers such as Baby Naznin, Monir Khan, Rizia Parvin and Hasan Chowdhury and poet Abdul Hye Shikder attended the programme. The singers sang people's songs.

The founder of Gonoshasthaya Kendra, Zafrullah Chowdhury, was also on the stage but he did not say anything.

The crowd caused severe traffic congestion on Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani Road. People had to wait for long to pass the road stretch between Shahbagh and Matsya Bhaban.

The apparently annoyed people waiting in vehicles responded to Khaleda Zia when she demanded punishment of Viqarunnisa Noon School teacher Parimal Jayadhar, accused in a case of raping a schoolgirl, and his associates and the resignation of the college principal.

Many of the passers-by also stopped and raised their hands when a special prayer was arranged for the salvation of the souls of the 44 schoolboys who were killed in a traffic accident at Mirsarai of Chittagong on Monday.

Source : New Age