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Quit, pave way for free, fair election
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Urging the government to step down immediately, he warned that if it didn’t do so, it would not manage to have any escape route.
The BNP leader said they announced the initial programme of their one-point movement and that they will come up with fresh programmes in line with people’s expectations if the government does not quit.
“We will topple this fascist and illegitimate government and establish one of people through an election under a non-party government. We must be victorious.”
Fakhrul urged the law enforcers and the government employees to discharge their duties neutrally upholding their oath of office. “Otherwise, you will be accused of breaching oaths.”
He alleged that the government has been indulging in unbridled corruption and misdeeds as it has no accountability to the people.
The government tried to obstruct party leaders and activists from joining the rally by creating obstacles in different areas, he added.
The BNP secretary general remembered those leaders and activists who have been “disappeared forcefully” and killed during the anti-government movement.
Standing committee member Mirza Abbas slammed the Awami League for holding a “counter rally” in the capital in the name of a “peace rally”.
“Their programme did not draw public support as they are holding the ‘peace rally’ keeping the country’s people unhappy…” he said.
BNP leaders and activists from different parts of Dhaka and adjacent districts started pouring into the rally venue with processions since 8:00am. They carried banners, festoons, placards, and portraits of the top party leaders.
A stage was set up on several trucks parked side by side. More than 100 loudspeakers were used at the rally which began around 2:00pm. Some CCTV cameras were installed near the stage.
Senior BNP leaders also spoke at the meeting, conducted by Dhaka north city BNP Member Secretary Aminul Huq and acting president of Dhaka south city BNP Tanvir Ahmed Robin.
Amanullah Aman, convener of Dhaka north city BNP, led the party men take an oath that they would not return home without ousting the government.
Mobile internet services (3G and 4G) were snapped in the rally venue area during the meeting.
A large number of law enforcers were deployed at Nayapaltan to maintain law and order.
A fewer number of public transport plied the city streets throughout the day yesterday.
PASSENGERS SUFFER
Dhaka-bound passengers endured immense sufferings on the Dhaka-Aricha highway in Savar’s Aminbazar area yesterday as police set up checkposts there.
Police searched a large number of vehicles and frisked passengers and pedestrians at the checkposts which were operated from 8:00am to 3:00pm. Law enforcers were also seen checking mobile phones of many.
Shahidul Islam, additional superintendent of police (Savar circle), however, denied the allegation of checking mobile phones.
Meanwhile, Savar police in the morning intercepted 40 microbuses in Jahangirnagar Society Gate area. The vehicles were rented for carrying local BNP leaders and activists to the rally venue in the capital.
Khorshed Alam, former joint secretary of Dhaka district BNP, said they hired 70 microbuses to transport party men to the capital. A team of Savar police, led by Inspector (investigation) Abdur Rashid, intercepted 40 of those around 10:00am, he alleged.
OC Depok Chandra Saha of Savar Police Station claimed that they didn’t detain anyone or intercept any vehicle bound for the BNP’s rally.
The BNP announced a 10-point demand from its rally in the capital on December 10 last year. The party and its allies launched a simultaneous movement from December 24 to press home the 10-point demand.
After observing different programmes for seven months, the party yesterday announced the one-point movement.
Our Savar correspondent also contributed to this report.

N Korea fires long-range ballistic missile
AFP, Seoul
North Korea has fired a long-range ballistic missile, the South Korean military said yesterday, days after Pyongyang threatened to down US spy planes that violated its airspace.
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points ever, with diplomacy stalled and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un calling for increased weapons development, including tactical nukes.
In response, Seoul and Washington have ramped up security cooperation, vowing that Pyongyang would face a nuclear response and the “end” of its current government were it to ever use its nuclear weapons against the allies.
South Korea’s military said it had detected the launch of a long-range ballistic missile fired from the Pyongyang area around 10 am (0100 GMT). “The ballistic missile was fired on a lofted trajectory and flew 1,000 km (620 miles) before splashing down in the East Sea,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
A lofted trajectory involves firing a missile up and not out, a method Pyongyang has previously said it employs in some weapons tests to avoid flying over neighbouring countries.
The launch “is a grave provocation that damages the peace and security of the Korean peninsula” and violates UN sanctions on Pyongyang, the JCS said, calling on North Korea to stop such actions.
Pyongyang last fired one of its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles in April -- the purportedly solid-fuelled Hwasong-18 -- and in February launched a Hwasong-15, which flew a similar 989 km.
The flight time of around 70 minutes is also similar to some of North Korea’s previous ICBM launches, experts said.
“Given what we have at this point, it’s about 90 percent certain that it was an ICBM launch,” Choi Gi-il, a professor of military studies at Sangji University, told AFP.
He added that it could also have been North Korea attempting to re-test its satellite launch technology to prepare for another attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit, after a May launch failed.
Yesterday’s launch came after North Korea on Monday accused a US spy plane of violating its airspace and condemned Washington’s plans to deploy a nuclear missile submarine near the Korean peninsula.
A spokesperson for the North Korean Ministry of National Defence said the United States had “intensified espionage activities beyond the wartime level”, citing “provocative” spy plane flights over eight straight days this month.
“There is no guarantee that such shocking accident as downing of the US Air Force strategic reconnaissance plane will not happen in the East Sea of Korea,” the spokesperson added.
Kim’s powerful sister Kim Yo Jong said that a US spy aircraft had violated the country’s eastern airspace twice on Monday morning, according to a separate statement.
Kim Yo Jong said North Korea would not respond directly to US reconnaissance activities outside of the country’s exclusive economic zone, but warned it would take “decisive action” if its maritime military demarcation line was crossed.
The United States said in April that one of its nuclear-armed ballistic submarines would visit a South Korean port for the first time in decades, without specifying an exact date.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has ramped up defence cooperation with Washington in response, staging joint military exercises with advanced stealth jets and long-range heavy bombers.