The BNP has extended its support to the Hifazat programme.
Chittagong-based Hifazat had called for a ‘Dhaka blockade’ programme for Sunday to press for its controversial 13-point charter of demands. The group’s supporters started for Motijheel for a rally in the afternoon.
Several crude bombs were exploded in front of the ruling Awami League headquarters which led to clashes with the law keepers. The clashes spread across the Purana Paltan and Bijoynagar.
Over 50 people have been injured in the clashes and at least three have so far been confirmed dead.
The Hifazat men went berserk smashing and torching hundreds of shops and buildings during the pitched battles. They set fire to the headquarters of the Communist Party of Bangladesh and House Building Finance Corporation offices.
At a press briefing at the BNP’s Naya Paltan headquarters on Sunday evening, Dudu said the Hifazat activists that gathered at Dhaka was their ‘guest’ and lauded them for making it to Dhaka braving ‘obstacles created by the government’.
“We urge the people of Dhaka to stand by them,” he said.
He said the country was passing through a ‘tough’ period and the only way to get out of the turmoil was for the government to accept the opposition’s demand for a non-party election-time government.
Khaleda Zia had issued a 48-hour deadline for the government to concede its demand and asked the ruling quarter not to create any bar to the Hifazat demand.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday invited Khaleda to talks to find a way out of the political deadlock. But the BNP chief poured cold water on the invitation saying the government must first accept its demand for a polls-time government.
Hasina had urged both the BNP and the Chittagong-based radical group to call off their programmes to facilitate rescue and rehabilitation work at Savar where a building collapse had left over 600 people dead so far.
Asked about the future course of actions, Dudu said they will be drawn up at Sunday’s meeting of the party’s policymaking body.