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BNP settles for soft agitation

Khaleda lays down 5 conditions for talks

Staff Correspondent
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday reiterated her call to the government for reaching a consensus through talks over constituting a democratic government.
"There is no alternative to holding a free, fair and participatory election for restoring peace, stability and normalcy in the country. Today, I urge the government again to hold dialogues to this end," she told a crowded press briefing at a city hotel.
Khaleda, also chief of the BNP-led 18-party alliance, announced a series of "peaceful" programmes, including countrywide rallies on January 20 and processions
carryingblack flags on January 29.
SEElihMTQttifttare meant to thank people for their "rejection" of the December 5 election while the black flag processions are to protest the "snatching" of people's voting rights and "killing of democracy" by the government.
Her announcement of these programmes instead of hartal and blockade indicates that she is under national and international pressure following months of violence by the opposition men.
Earlier on Monday night, chiefs of the opposition alliance at a meeting with Khaleda in chair decided in principle to call a hartal for January 29, protesting the January 5 "farcical" election. The meeting, however, empowered the BNP chief to make the final decision and announce it at yesterday's briefing.
Between November 26 and January 12, the opposition parties enforced 45 days of countrywide blockades and hartals, demanding a nonparty administration to oversee the election and also to resist the polls.
Over the past two and a half months, more than 120 people have been killed in violence, at least 20 of them on the polling day alone.
The government maintains that the BNP has joined hands with the Jamaat-e-Islami to save the Islamist party leaders who are facing war crimes trial.
On several occasions before and after the election, Hasina called upon her archrival Khaleda to sever ties with the Jamaat to make way for talks. Some foreign diplomats based in Dhaka also questioned BNP's relations with the Jamaat and requested it to shun violence.
Yesterday, when journalists asked Khaleda if her party would cut off ties with Jamaat, she avoided a direct reply.
The former prime minister instead said, "It was the Awami League that together with Jamaat went to election in 1986. The Awami League along with Jamaat also waged a movement for the caretaker government |1995-96]."
After the January 5 election, she told the foreign media that the BNP's ties with the Jamaat were "strategic and not permanent". FIVE-POINT DEMAND FOR TALKS To create the environment for talks, Khaleda made a five-point demand to the government.
They include immediate release of all "political leaders" and withdrawal of all cases against them.
She also urged the government to stop oppression, attacks and arrests of opposition men, lift the ban on peaceful political programmes, allow all political parties to carry out their normal activities and ensure freedom of expression by permitting reopen- ing all the media outlets that have been shut down.
20 PROMISES
The BNP chief in her written statement made 20 pledges, saying her party would shun the path of repression and torture unlike the Awami League.
Other significant pledges are: working out a permanent formula for handing over power, combating terrorism, militancy and communalism with an iron hand, containing corruption and nepotism, updating electoral system and taking specific measures to ensure participation and representation of talented and competent persons in parliament.
Besides, she added, forgiveness, generosity, greatness and logic would determine the behaviour towards the opposition.
Khaleda said she would come up with a detailed plan on energy, power, mineral resources, defence, industry, culture and other fields in her party's election manifesto in future.
The BNP would ensure independence of Grameen Bank and due respect to Prof Muhammad Yunus as the only Nobel laureate of the country, she said.
ON MINORITY
On the recent attacks on Hindus, she said the minority people were attacked to divert the attention of the people and the international community from the "farcical" election.
She claimed they had been alerting the government about this. "The heinous and ruthless attacks took place in many places on government instructions and the administration and law enforcers were inactive."
She demanded that the government form a committee to identify and punish the perpetrators and compensate the affected people.
"If the government does not take these steps, we will form a judicial inquiry committee in future."
QUESTION-ANSWER
Replying to a query on the reactions of the US and India after the polls, Khaleda said her party wanted good and friendly relations with all countries, including the neighbouring ones. "But Bangladesh is an independent country. We don't want anyone to interfere in our domestic affairs."
It was for the first time that she took questions from journalists in the past several years.
Asked to comment on Hasina's recent remarks that the BNP chief had suffered a double blow by boycotting the election, she said she had lost nothing.
According to her, it was the AL that lost everything as it got detached from the people through holding the one-sided election.
She avoided a direct reply on whether the BNP would shoulder the responsibility of the violence unleashed by the Jamaat.
She said her party was not involved in violence, and added, "Our movement was in the right direction and it is still in the right track."
PROGRAMMES
In addition to the January 20 and 29 protest programmes, the BNP will hold discussions on January 18 to mark the birth anniversary of late president Ziaur Rahman, also the BNP founder.
Also, the BNP chief and other BNP leaders would travel across the country to drum up public support for an inclusive election.
FAKHRLIL ABSENT
BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, who has been hiding since November 8 to avoid arrest, was absent from the press briefing.
But several other leaders, who were also hiding, were present.
Asked why Fakhrul was absent, some BNP leaders told this correspondent that they did not know.
A member of the BNP chiefs media team said Fakhrul was sick. But an assistant office secretary of the party said Fakhrul was in good health and held a three-hour meeting with Khaleda on Tuesday at her Gulshan office.
Shamimur Rahman Shamim, another assistant office secretary, said Fakhrul was supposed to attend the briefing. "But I don't know why he didn't."
Party insiders saidTarique Rahman, elder son of Khaleda and senior vice-chairman of the BNP, was displeased with Fakhrul's poor performance in leading the anti-government movement. He also questioned Fakhrul's contribution to the party.