No gas, power if blockade continues
If BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia does not call off the nationwide blockade, power and gas connections to her office would be severed and food supply would be halted, threatened Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan yesterday.
"If you do not withdraw the blockade and hartal by February 2, you will be confined in such a way … ," he said.
He asked Khaleda to call off the hartals and blockades for the sake of over 14 lakh SSC examinees whose tests start on Monday.
"Workers and owners will gather in front of your office with burnt vehicles. You will be surrounded. Even the food provided to you by your party leaders will not reach your room. You will have to die there without food … ," he said.
Khaleda is “confined” to her Gulshan office since January 3. At least 35 people were killed, nearly 350 people got burnt in arson attacks and thousands more got injured since she called the indefinite blockade from January 6.
Yesterday Shajahan was speaking at a rally organised by newly floated Bangladesh Sramik-Karmachari-Peshajibi-Muktijoddha Samannay Parishad at Suhrawardy Udyan.
At the rally, Shajahan, also convener of the parishad and executive president of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Sramik Federation, announced a series of programmes to resist the ongoing violence in the name of blockades and hartals.
The parishad would hold demonstration rallies at the Shaheed Minars of every district on February 3. Officials, employees and workers of all offices, business institutions, industries are to stand on streets for 15 minutes from 12:45pm on February 5.
All vehicles are to honk for two minutes, all shop owners and workers are to play the flute for five minutes and all farmers are to stand up for 15 minutes at 12:45pm on the same day to protest the blockade and hartals, according to the parishad's call.
"We will announce greater programmes from the national convention [Scheduled for Feb 7 in Dhaka]. We will make the BNP-led 20-party alliance withdraw their programme," he said.
He also called upon the people to form a security layer at every locality, prepare a list of arsonists and attackers, cooperate with law enforcers to get the perpetrators arrested, and to keep fire extinguisher in vehicles.
Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad Central Command Council Chairman Helal Morshed Khan, and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal Standing Committee member Shirin Akhter, among others, spoke at the rally where several thousand workers from different sectors were brought in.
Over 10,000 workers of garment factories, mostly of Mirpur, Badda, and Kuril areas were taken to the rally, said a garment workers' leader yesterday.
"We have brought them through trade unions at different garment factories. Workers of those factories that are closed on Fridays have been brought to the rally. So, their work was not hampered," claimed the leader seeking anonymity.
Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Sramik Federation General Secretary Osman Ali told The Daily Star around 15,000 to 20,000 workers from the transport sector had joined the rally.
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