20-Party coalition leaders discuss agitations, human chains

The 20-Party alliance has agitations, human chains and leaflet distribution in its plans to protest against the government’s latest decision to raise the prices of gas and electricity.

The leaders of the coalition met with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Sunday night to discuss the protest programmes.
 
The BNP last year had threatened to kick off an indefinite anti-government movement if the gas price was hiked.
 
Khaleda called the meeting to decide on the programmes three days after the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission said the gas and electricity prices will go up by 26.29 and 2.93 percent, respectively, from Tuesday.
 
Though the party did not react immediately to the government decision, BNP’s acting spokesperson Asaduzzaman Ripon on Thursday protested it and said party policymakers would discuss and decide on agitations.
 
After Sunday’s one-hour-long meeting, Liberal Democratic Party Chairman Oli Ahmed told reporters, “We’ve discussed the issues. The BNP will announce the programmes one or two days later.”
 
Several leaders of the BNP-led alliance told bdnews24.com they had decided in principle to organise ‘soft programmes’ such as protest rallies and human chains at the district and Upazila levels.

They said the BNP chief would set the dates for those events.
 
Labour Party Chairman Mostafizur Rahman Iran said the coalition partners suggested different programmes that included demonstrations and leaflet distributions to drive up public support.
 
“The alliance leader (Khaleda) will choose the programmes,” he said, adding that a string of them would be announced very soon.