Most opposition parties, including the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its partners in the ongoing simultaneous movement to oust the Awami League government, brought out large processions in Dhaka on Friday to press home their demand.

BNP Dhaka city north and south units brought out two separate rallies from Uttara and Kamlapur areas, respectively, where several thousand party leaders and activists joined to demand the resignation of prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Apart from the BNP, Ganatantra Mancha, Jatiyatabadi Samamona Jote, Gono Forum, and People’s Party, Peshajibi Ganatantrik Jote, the 12-party alliance, the Labour Party, Liberal Democratic Party, the National Democratic Movement, and two factions of Gana Odhikar Parishad also brought out mass processions at different parts of the city with the same demand.

The Aamar Bangladesh Party brought out a procession separately.

Dhaka’s north city unit BNP brought out the procession from Badda’s Suvastu Tower area towards the Malibagh Abul Hotel crossing, while the party’s south city unit brought out a procession from the Kamalapur stadium area towards Malibagh Rail Gate.

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir addressed a brief rally before the start of the procession in Uttara, while party standing committee member Mirza Abbas addressed a brief rally before the start of the procession in Kamalapur stadium area.

Friday’s events were the third programme of the opposition parties’ one-point movement with the demand of ousting AL from power.

On July 12, BNP and the like-minded parties announced their one-point movement to realise their demands.

Their demands include the resignation of the current ‘fascist, authoritarian, people’s vote looter, and illegal’ Awami League government, dissolution of the existing parliament, formation of the poll-time impartial government; reconstitution of the Election Commission for arranging a free, fair, and inclusive election, the release of all political prisoners, including BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, withdrawal of all false and fictitious cases, including those against Tarique Rahman, and annulment of all false convictions.

Addressing Uttara’s brief rally, Mirza Fakhrul said that the government would not be allowed to play games with the upcoming general election.

‘We have no choice but to fight until death. The government will be ousted by this movement. If the government doesn’t resign, it will be brought down through street programmes,’ Fakhrul said, adding that Sheikh Hasina’s resignation was the only demand  of the BNP.

‘The echo of the demand must be reached to Ganabhaban and Bangabhaban,’ the BNP leader said, referring to the official residences of the prime minister and the president, respectively.

He said that the Awami League wanted to hold a farcical election hurriedly, like in 2014 and 2018.

‘Will the country’s people allow them to do so again? Of course not,’ he said.

He said that no election would be allowed to take place while Sheikh Hasina was in power.

He demanded that the existing Election Commission be disbanded and that a new one be formed.

Fakhrul said that the Awami League had destroyed all the achievements of the country’s independence.

AL has destroyed democracy, the economy, and educational institutions. They destroyed the country’s judiciary most, he said.

He also said that the party would announce its next programme within a day or two.

In the Kamlapur area, Abbas said that the people of Bangladesh would not accept this Election Commission.

‘It [EC] has formed this illegal government, which comes to power with night-time voting. They obey unjust laws. You have no constitutional right to vote. No election will be held in the country without an independent government,’ he said.

Leaders of the Ganatantra Mancha, a combine of the six political parties, expressed their vows that they would continue their movements until the resignation of the Awami League government before the next general election.

Leaders of the 12-party alliance said that the government’s resignation was imminent.

They said that the current government should leave immediately. Moreover, fair elections are not possible in the country.

LDP president Oli Ahmed said that the Awami League destroyed politics in the past; now it has destroyed humanity and the country.

‘Therefore, resign from power as soon as possible. Dissolve parliament and hold elections under a caretaker government,’ he urged the government.

Opposition leaders and activists joined the rally amid rain at different places, while a huge number of law enforcers were deployed at various points in the city.

City dwellers suffer from huge traffic congestion due to the BNP and other opposition processions in the capital city.