Published : 06 Sep 2026, 05:46 AM
Updated : 16 Sep 2026, 11:47 AM
Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Shafiqur Rahman has warned that if the referendum verdict is not implemented, the Opposition will call for a larger movement.
At the closing rally at Chattogram’s Laldighi Maidan on Saturday night, following the 11-Party Alliance’s long march, he said: “The call will come when the people need it.”
Addressing the BNP government, Shafiqur said: “So many people have died. Many people from their party have also died. They have been disappeared. They have been imprisoned in Aynaghor. Do we not have any responsibility to the blood and lives shed by these people?
“It is a pity - you have been in power for six months. You say that your government is a young government. But the people have not voted for any child. You have solicited votes as adults. You have given your word. Now you’re breaking it.”
The Jamaat chief said, “You cannot act erratically and expect the Opposition to sit and suck its thumbs. This will not happen.”
He warned that the Opposition had taken a conciliatory attitude so far, but that could change.
“You have forced us to take to the streets. We did not want to. We wanted fascism to be buried and for the decision to be made in parliament.
“You have insulted 70 percent of the people of Bangladesh by denying the referendum verdict. You have cheated. The Opposition party will not cheat the people.”
The 11-party alliance held a Long March programme on Saturday demanding the implementation of the referendum verdict, trials for massacres during the July Uprising, the resolution of the electricity, oil, gas and fertiliser crises, the end of extortion and corruption to prevent rising prices of daily commodities, the improvement of the law-and-order situation and an end to partisanship.
The event, which started in Dhaka on Saturday morning, ended with a rally at Laldighi Maidan in Chattogram at night.
