BNP sets Khaleda’s release as key condition for polls

Senior Correspondent: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has set the party chairperson Khaleda Zia’s release from jail as the key condition for participating in the next general polls.

Besides, the party also demanded resignation of the current government, deployment of Army, dissolution of the parliament and re-formulation of the Election Commission (EC) to participate in the parliamentary election.

Leaders of BNP came up with the conditions from a rally held in front of the party’s Nayapaltan central office in the capital on Friday.

BNP arranged the programme demanding advanced treatment for the party chief in the jail and release of her.

The party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, “No election will be held in the country keeping BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia behind the bars. It is the key condition to release Khaleda Zia from jail for holding polls. Apart from this, the government will have to quit, to deploy Army, to dissolve the parliament and to reformulate the EC.”

The BNP leader said, “The current government is illegal as it is unelected. People want freedom from their clutches and they want guarantee of natural death.”

BNP got permission to arrange a rally in the city after two and a half-year on 23 conditions imposed by Dhaka Metropolitan police.

The prescheduled rally launched through reciting verses from the holy Quran around 3:00pm on Friday.

Earlier, BNP held a rally in Dhaka city January 5, 2016.
 

risilngbd/Dhaka/July 20, 2018/Reza/A K Azad