Anti-Govt Movement: BNP weighing options for ‘final phase’

The BNP is planning to hold road marches or rallies as the final phase of the anti-government simultaneous movement.

Most of the senior leaders and the parties participating in the movement opined for starting the movement through road marches, while some suggested road marches after holding rallies in 19 major districts to gain momentum for the movement, said party sources.

They said the BNP wants to go to the final phase of the movement with fresh programmes. And to make it inclusive, the top leadership is taking opinions from leaders of party's different tiers and the parties taking part in the movement.

"We are discussing the final phase of the movement. We will announce the programmes shortly after finalising them," Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, BNP secretary general, told The Daily Star yesterday.

Sources said BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman will hold a meeting with its organising secretaries tomorrow.

The party already held a series of meetings with the like-minded political parties and took their views.

A BNP standing committee member, seeking anonymity, said the committee held a meeting on Monday night where they discussed the party's next course of action.

Most of the standing committee members favoured the road marches, but could not reach a consensus on whether the programme will be Dhaka-centric or from Dhaka to divisional headquarters.

Party sources said due to the ongoing SSC examination, the announcement of the programmes may take some time as the party does not want to go for any major programme during the exams.

Preferring anonymity, a senior BNP leader said, "They can hold fresh programmes from the third week of this month as soon as the exams are over."

Some senior leaders said the party had held various types of programmes, including human chains, hunger strikes and rallies, but those failed to get momentum. They said the divisional rallies saw a huge number of people.

The BNP leader said the top party leadership is mentally prepared for waging the final phase of the movement and wants to create a "solid foundation" for the movement before Eid-ul-Azha. "We don't want to prolong the movement unnecessarily which may lose the momentum."

Party sources said the joint declaration of simultaneous movement has been finalised after discussions with the like-minded political parties.

The declaration will include the demands of the other parties, keeping intact the 10-point demand of the BNP.

Source added that apart from this, there will be a joint outline that will mention what the parties will do if they assume power in future.

The BNP already announced a 27-point outline and the proposals of other parties are also being included.

Leaders of the liaison committee of the like-minded political parties said a joint announcement will be made soon.

"It will be finalised within a day or two," said a leader.

Sources said there were some differences of opinions about the joint declaration between the BNP and Gonotontro Moncho, an alliance of seven political parties. To solve it, the two sides held a meeting at the BNP chairperson's Gulshan office on Tuesday, the sources added.

After the meeting, BNP Standing Committee member Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury told journalists that they discussed the joint declaration and it would be announced soon.