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Call off hartal, sit for talks

Hasina asks Khaleda

Staff Correspondent
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia must withdraw the 60-hour hartal first to sit in dialogue over the formation of an all-party polls-time government.
"The door for discus-
sion is still open. The hartal has to be withdrawn and you |Khaleda| will have to promise that you won't play with people enforcing hartal again,” she said while addressing a rally at the historic Suhrawardi Udyan.
She directed leaders and workers of Awami League and its allies to be on the streets to ensure that pro-hartal activists could not harm people and their properties.
In her 33-minute speech that started at 4:35pm, Hasina, also Awami League president requested BNP Chairperson Khaleda to withdraw the hartal for the sake of Junior School Certificate exams, which was scheduled to begin from today.
Criticising Khaleda for her recent remarks "on freeing the war criminals", Hasina said Khaleda would not be able to protect the war criminals by enforcing hartals and killing people.
Referring to the trial of BDR carnage, Hasina claimed that pro-BNP-Jamaat lawyers were giving legal assistance to the killers. "The BNP chief went into an underground hideout an hour before the mutiny. It has been proved today how
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her [Khaleda] party men were involved in the mutiny, "she said.
On BNP's demand for restoration of a non-party caretaker government, Hasina questioned if Khaleda had forgotten her and her sons' arrests and torture by the last military-backed caretaker government.
"Now for what and in whose interest are you [Khaleda] trying to bring in an undemocratic government again. What will you get? Where is the assurance that the person you are trying to put in power won't put you in jail again?" she said.
She said the election must take place in time andpeoplewouldre-electAwami League.
Referring to her telephone call to Khaleda on October 26, she said, "I requested her [Khaleda] to withdraw the hartal [a 60-hour hartal from October 27] and sit in dialogue. But she refused and enforced hartal which claimed 20 lives. She must shoulder the responsibilities for the deaths."
Awami League organised the rally marking the Jail Killing Day. Thousands of people of the capital and its adjacent districts joined the rally
from around noon. Many carried placards seeking vote for boat, Awami League's electoral symbol. Many also chanted slogans against BNP-Jamaat.
At the rally, Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraftil Islam said no dialogue would be held if the opposition leader did not by yesterday withdraw the hartal, which begins from this morning.
He also alleged that Khaleda did not believe in dialogue and peace.
The remark came a day after the country's apex business body, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), tried to initiate a dialogue between the general secretary of the Awami League and the secretary general ofBNP.
Meanwhile, BNP rejected the Awami League call for withdrawing the hartal and sit in dialogue.
BNP Standing Committee Member Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman told The Daily Star, "Had the prime minister assured our chairperson of restoring the non-party caretaker government system, she would have withdrawn the hartal."