BNP policymakers say that if Hefajat-e Islam, organiser of the long march, enforces nonstop hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
s from April 7 in case the government obstructs the march, the BNP-led alliance will also step up tougher agitations.
Amid such a tense political situation, the main opposition party is preparing itself for a showdown on April 10 in the capital. Party chief
Khaleda ZiaThree-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
is expected to announce the next spell of anti-government agitation programmes on the day.
"The prevailing political situation will dictate the type of the next agitation programmes," Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, a BNP standing committee member, told The Daily Star yesterday.
On lending support to Hefajat-e Islam's long march towards Dhaka, he said: "We have extended our support because the march certainly has its political impact."
A series of hartals, road blockades and sit-ins like those by the Shahbagh protesters are under consideration of the BNP-led alliance, insiders say.
"We have empowered BNP chief Khaleda Zia to decide the mode of agitation programme," Abdul Latif Nejami, chief of Islamic Oikya Jote, a component of the BNP-led alliance, told The Daily Star on Monday.
BNP leaders expect the radical Islamist groups on some point will wage a movement to dislodge the government to realise their demands, as the government can in no way meet all those demands.
And if that is the case, the BNP-Jamaat-led alliance will assure them of meeting all their demands, if voted to power, a BNP policymaker said, requesting anonymity.
Salafist groups have a 13-point demand, including restoration of the phrase "absolute faith and trust in the Almighty Allah" in the constitution, enactment of a blasphemy law, scrapping the education and women development policies and harsh punishment to "atheist bloggers".