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BNP back to streets
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are paying a high cost due to the blanket corruption of the ruling party. So, there is no alternative to [waging] movement,” Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, the party’s standing committee member, told The Daily Star yesterday.
He also said with people having taken to the streets, the ongoing movement will gradually transform into an anti-government one, and the government must step down from office to pave the way for a free and fair election under a non-partisan interim government.
Sources inside the party said its high command has already instructed grassroots leaders to stay on the streets even after the rise of attacks and arrests, and that action would be taken against any committee that failed to carry out its duties.
“A letter in this regard was sent to district and upazila level leaders and also the nomination aspirants for the next election,” said a central leader, adding that the letter carried six directives.
The BNP took to the streets on August 22 to protest the price hikes.
There are 487 upazila committees, 512 thana committees, 314 municipality committees and 4,573 union committees, party sources said.
This time the party has decided to hold programmes not just at district and upazila levels, but also at union level, as per decisions of the BNP top brass.
The party has decided to extend legal support to the arrested leaders and activists, and to also provide medical support to the wounded.
Senior leaders of the party said these programmes are basically “warmups” for bigger ones leading up to the national elections.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said in the last one week, more than 775 leaders and activists were injured in 26 districts and cases were filed against a few thousand BNP men.
“Common people along with the party’s leaders and activists are participating in the ongoing programmes spontaneously. This has frightened the Awami League and they started attacking us. Our pro-people issue-based programmes will continue,” he said.
In Sunday’s meeting of its standing committee, the highest policymaking body of the party, senior leaders decided to continue the ongoing programmes to “establish control of the streets”.
Party sources said leaders and activists are charged up about the movement and determined to continue it till the election.
A standing committee member said the party leaders were able to show their strength on the streets despite attacks from the ruling party, and this will give confidence to other leaders, as well as the people, to take to the streets.
Sources said the ongoing programmes will be continued till September 10 and then fresh programmes would be announced for all its 81 organisational districts, and gradually the protests will move forward to divisional headquarters and then into Dhaka.

US approves updated Pfizer, Moderna shots targeting Omicron
AFP, Washington
US health officials yesterday authorized updated Covid-19 vaccinations by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech that specifically target the latest strains of the Omicron variant, with the goal of jump-starting a new booster campaign.
The two updated booster shots aimed at providing “better protection against Covid-19 caused by the Omicron variant” are approved for people age 12 and above for the Pfizer shot and 18 and older for Moderna, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a statement.
This new generation of anti-Covid vaccines targets both the original strain of coronavirus and the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages, the subvariants of Omicron that are causing the most cases in the United States and which the FDA predicts will circulate in the coming months.
Earlier this summer the US health department announced it had purchased 105 million doses from Pfizer and 66 million from Moderna for use over the fall and winter.
The vaccines have yet to be recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation’s health protection agency. But an independent panel of experts is scheduled to be convened by the CDC today to discuss the updates.
CDC director Rochelle Walensky will be in charge of giving the final green light.
The new versions of the vaccines could potentially be available in the United States as early as next week.
“Receiving a booster that specifically targets the Omicron BA.4/.5 variant, currently the most prevalent strain of SARS-CoV-2, is an important public health measure that people can take to help protect themselves, especially as we head into a season filled with indoor gatherings,” Moderna chief executive Stephane Bancel said in a statement.
The vaccines currently in circulation target the initial strain of the virus that first appeared in Wuhan, China. But they have gradually proven to be less effective against the variants that have appeared over time, due to rapid evolution of the virus.
In contrast to the Alpha and Delta variants, which eventually waned, Omicron and its subvariants have come to dominate infections worldwide in 2022.
Pfizer and Moderna have also filed for approval of their updated vaccines with the European Medicines Agency.