Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal, opposition BNP’s youth front, has announced countrywide demonstration May 7-8 demanding ‘return’ of missing BNP leader M Ilias Ali and withdrawal of the cases filed against party leaders.
Juba Dal senior vice-president Abdus Salam Azad announced the programme at a press briefing at the BNP’s Naya Paltan headquarters on Friday.
The BNP youth front will demonstrate across the country on May 7 while agitation programmes will be held on the next day at all the district headquarters and metropolitan cities.
Azad claimed that at least 5,000 Juba Dal leaders and activists were accused in ‘false cases’ while around 300 were put behind bars.
He alleged government hand behind the bomb blasts at the secretariat and said, ‘They are blaming the BNP to divert attention from the issue of Ilias’s disappearance’.
One of party’s organising secretaries Ilias, also a former MP and the BNP Sylhet chapter chief, went missing along with his driver Ansar Ali past midnight on April 17 from the capital’s Mohakhali area.
Protesting at his alleged ‘abduction’ by ‘government agencies’ and demanding his immediate ‘release’, the opposition enforced five days of countrywide shutdowns over the last two weeks.
During the shutdowns, there were incidents of clashes, vandalism, arson and blasts of local-made hand bombs in different parts of the country including the capital.
The police filed two cases on April 29 accusing several senior BNP leaders over bomb explosions at the secretariat and torching of vehicles in front of the Prime Minister’s Office during the opposition-enforced countrywide lockdown on that day.
The accused include acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, joint secretaries general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Mahbubuddin Khokan, standing committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, ASM Hannan Shah and Amanullah Aman.