Khaleda on warpath

Splashing cold water on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s offer for a dialogue, the BNP chairperson went ballistic on Saturday issuing a 48-hour ultimatum to accept the Opposition’s demand for restoring the caretaker system to oversee the parliamentary polls.

“The dialogue offer is a drama,” Khaleda said. "The government has two days to accept our demand for the caretaker system.”

Khaleda issued the ultimatum while addressing a mammoth rally of her party-led 18-party alliance at Dhaka’s Motijheel area on Saturday afternoon, two days after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had invited her arch rival to sit for a dialogue in any place – in or outside parliament – to break the country’s political standoff.

Khaleda in her one-hour address said that the government’s dialogue offer was a bid to 'foil' the opposition's rally.

The former prime minister said the next parliamentary polls can only be held under the non-party neutral caretaker administration.

If the government did not accept the demand, she said she would organise a sit-in demonstration.

"Would you follow me if I ask you to join the sit-in?," she asked.

She also urged the government not to obstruct the Dhaka-siege programme of the Hifazat-e Islam on Sunday.

Regarding the government's political dialogue offer, Khaleda asked the government to first create 'a congenial atmosphere'.

"First restore the caretaker system, only then will we consider sitting for dialogue," she said.

Khaleda blamed the government for failing to rescue most of those trapped in the collapsed Rana Plaza alive.

“I come here with sadness in my heart,” she said as she began her speech at the rally.

"If the rescue effort had started on time, many more people could have been rescued alive," Khaleda Zia said. "The government failed but it also did not allow others to join the rescue operation."

She alleged that the government was not coming clean on exact casualties in what is easily Bangladesh's worst-ever industrial disaster.

"Still many people are missing. The official count by the government is much less than the real one."

The death toll from the disastrous Rana Plaza collapse reached 550 on Saturday noon with the recovery of 25 more bodies from the ruins of the building. The 2nd phase of the rescue operation using heavy equipment continued for the 5th consecutive day on Saturday.

Khaleda arrived at the rally venue around 3.50pm sporting an off-white saree with thousands of party supporters raising slogans.

The rally kicked off at around 2:30pm with recitation from the holy Quran by Jatiyatabadi Ulama Dal President Hafez Maulana Abdul Malek.

Later, a Munajat or special prayer was offered seeking divine blessings for the departed souls of those killed in the Savar tragedy.

Islami Chhatra Shibir Secretary General Abdul Jabbar addressed the rally at the beginning. Later Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal President Abdul Kader Bhuiyan Jewel also addressed the gathering.

BNP’s Dhaka city unit Convener and former Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka presided over the rally.

Acting Ameer (chief) of Jamaat-e-Islami Makbul Ahmed and Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Chairman Col (Retd) Oli Ahmed, Bir Bikram, sat on either side of the BNP chairperson.

BNP Standing Committee Members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Mahbubur Rahman, ASM Hannan Shah, Vice Chairmen Chowdhury Kamal Ibn Yusuf, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, Vice-Chairperson Selima Rahman, Chairperson’s Advisers Shamsuzzaman Dudu, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Dr Osman Faruk, Inam Ahmed Chowdhury and Abdul Mannan, Joint Secretary General Mizanur Rahman Minu, Barkatullah Bulu, Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Kalyan Party Chairman Syed Muhammad Ibrahim were among the many leaders present at the rally.

The venue was overflowing with thousands pouring in to join the rally.

The rally spilled over on to Fakirapool, Hatkhola, Dainik Bangla Crossing, Rajuk Avenue, RK Mission Road, Arambagh and Dilkusha areas and nearby roads with the opposition activists holding digital banners and festoons, and raising slogans against the government and in support of the restoration of the caretaker government.

Thousands of the activists of the Jamaat-backed student affiliate Islami Chhatra Shibir joined the rally at Motijheel demanding that the constitutional amendment allowing war crimes trial be annulled and the convicted Jamaat leaders released.