The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Sunday said that it might continue to use general strike as the final weapon in democracy against the ‘fascist government.’
‘We do not want to enforce general strike. But we may use it as a decisive democratic weapon if the situation forces us to do so,’ the BNP spokesman, Tariqul Islam, said at a press conference at the BNP office after the countrywide dawn-to-dusk general strike.
He said that Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela had also enforced general strike.
He did not talk about any further programme and said that more than 500 leaders and activists of the BNP had been arrested and  more than 600 had been injured in police attack during Sunday’s general strike.
Asked about the comment the US ambassador in Dhaka, Dan Mozena, made on Saturday that informal parleys were on between the government and the opposition to resolve the political stalemate, he said that if the ambassador had said this, he would have known better. ‘We do not know of any such thing.’
Tariqul said that the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on January 1 said that she did not know of any informal parley.
Asked about the finance minister’s comment that the enforcement of general strike should be banned by enacting a law, the BNP leader said that he respected him as he respects Muhith as he is an elderly person.
Tariqul said that Muhith is about 82 years and he could say many things but the BNP does not care about such things.
Asked if they find any success of the Awami League government in its four years, he said, ‘The government certainly has some successes which have been eclipsed by corruption, bribery, killing, enforced disappearances and financial scams. It will require a microscope to see successes of the government.’
Tariqul announced demonstrations in the capital Dhaka for Tuesday in protest at the killing of Rafiqul Islam Majumder, general secretary of Dhaka city ward 56 unit of the BNP, at Kumarkhali in Kushtia.
He alleged that Rafiqul had been called out by RAB from his father-in-law’sat Anandanagar in Jhenaidah on Saturday and his body was found in a playground at Adaribari of Kumarkhali on Sunday morning.
Tariqul condemned the killing of Rafiqul and demanded punishment of the killers after an investigation.
BNP leaders Amanullah Aman, Barkatullah Bulu, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Fazlul Huq Milon, Zainul Abdin Farroque, Abdus Salam, Habibur Rahman Habib, Shirin Sultana, Sultan Salahuddin Tuku and Rafique Shikder, among others, attended the news conference.