Oikya Front holds public meeting in Rajshahi

Leaders and activists of the Jatiya Oikya Front are holding a public meeting in Rajshahi as differences remained between the government and the opposition alliance despite two rounds of talks.

The alliance is holding the meeting at the Rajshahi Madrasa field, a day after the Election Commission set Dec 23 as the voting date.

Dr Kamal Hossain, chief of the alliance, did not join the planned rally due to his high fever.

The meeting headed by Mizanur Rahman Minu, a member of the the BNP chairperson’s advisory council, started at 2pm with recitations from religious scriptures.

BNP leaders Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Moudud Ahmed and Mirza Abbas, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-JSD President ASM Abdur Rab, Krishak Sramik Janata League President Abdul Kader Siddique and Oikya Front leader Mahmudur Rahman Manna attended the programme

Security in Rajshahi has been strengthened ahead of the rally. Police said they were prepared to tackle any “untoward incident”.

Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda announced the schedule for the 11th national election on Thursday evening, ignoring opposition calls to defer the election.

Prior to the election schedule, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sat with her political foes in a series of talks to iron out their differences, but they failed to reach a consensus.

The BNP had called for a road march to the Rajshahi rally after the opposition alliance failed to come to an agreement with the prime minister on its list of demands during talks. It later called off the march.

Mirza Fakhrul had called for the schedule announcement to be put off before the talks and said that the announcement had been made according to the wishes of the ruling Awami League.