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Fakhrul takes fresh vow to intensify anti-govt movement

UNB . Dhaka
09 Jan 2023 20:36:12 | Update: 09 Jan 2023 21:14:20
Fakhrul takes fresh vow to intensify anti-govt movement
The secretary general of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir waves after he was released from prison on the outskirts of Dhaka on January 9, 2023 — AFP Photo

Soon after getting out of jail, BNP secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Monday took a fresh vow to intensify the ongoing movement for ousting the government and the restoration of democracy and people’s voting rights.

“The more they will repress us, the more people will burst into anger and defeat them through a movement,” he said.

Speaking briefly in front of BNP’s Nayapaltan Central office, he said their party doesn’t have any option to back down from the movement.

“We’ll only move forward with our movement and will free all our arrested leaders and activists. We have to intensify our movement to defeat this regime and our movement will be successful,” he added.

Fakhrul said they want to carry out their movement in a peaceful manner.

“Let us come forward to free Bangladesh from fascist and autocratic rule and restore democracy and people’s voting rights. After coming out of jail we are taking a fresh vow that we will carry on our movement until we succeed,” he said.

Speaking at a programme, BNP standing committee members Mirza Abbas said the government had the plan to create violence at Nayapaltan over BNP’s rally on December 10, but they avoided it.

“They (govt) thought we will hold our December 10 rally at Nayapaltan and engaged in a clash with police and they will make a political game by shifting the blame on us for the violence,” he said.

The BNP leader further said, “I was arrested as I did not give the government a chance to create violence at Nayapaltan on December 10.”

Earlier, Fakhrul and Abbas were freed from jail on bail at Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj around 6pm.

Several hundred BNP leaders and activists and the relatives of the two-party top leaders received the duo at the jail gate.

Getting released from jail, Fakhrul came straight to BNP's Nayapaltan Central office.

Earlier on Sunday, the Appellate Division upheld the High Court order granting bail to Fakhrul and party standing committee member Abbas in a case filed over the clash between police and the party activists at Nayapaltan on December 7 last year.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order disposing of the state's petition challenging the High Court order.

On January 4, Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Jahangir Hossain fixed Sunday for the hearing of the petition at the full bench of the Appellate Division.

The petition was filed on the same day with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the High Court order granting bail to the two BNP leaders in the case.

The High Court granted six months' bail to Fakhrul and Abbas, in the case on January 3.

On December 9, a team of Detective Branch (DB) police picked up Fakhrul and Abbas from their homes in separate raids in the capital, a day before the party’s much-talked-about rally in the capital.

Later, they were arrested in a case over the clash between police and the party activists in the capital's Nayapaltan on December 7 centring the rally. A Dhaka court sent them to jail rejecting their bail pleas.

BNP, however, arranged the rally in absence of Fakhrul and Abbas and placed a 10-point demand, including the resignation of the current government and holding the next polls under a non-party polls-time government.

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