Bangladesh's opposition leader and BNP chief Khaleda Zia today asked her supporters to observe a nationwide strike on June 27.
Bangladesh's opposition leader and BNP chief Khaleda Zia today asked her supporters to observe a nationwide strike on June 27 to protest against the "misrule" of her arch-rival prime minister Sheikh Hasina's government.
"I know the day-long 'hartal' will expose the people to some sufferings, but it will not be more than the agonies you are in under the misrule of the incumbent government," Zia told her thousands of supporters at the downtown Dhaka's Purana Paltan Maidan.
The general strike, first in nearly three-and-half- years, was called by Zia in the first public rally of her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) since the landmark 2008 general elections that brought Hasina's Awami League-led alliance into power.
During her 2-hour-long address, Zia criticised the government for its "failure" to run the country and exposing the people to their "worst miseries".
She slammed what she called the "politicisation of particularly the justice administration system", vandalism by ruling party students activists at campuses and compromising the country's interests through unequal deals with India.
Zia, however, did not elaborate how the deals reached during Hasina's maiden New Delhi trip in January this year compromised Bangladesh's interests at the rally.
In the past, BNP had alleged that Hasina had reached a "secret deal" with India while it feared an agreement allowing the neighbour to use the country's two seaports could affect its sovereignty as well as economic interests.
Zia's rightwing party was generally known for its anti-India stance while Dhaka-New Delhi relation was said to have witnessed its lowest ebb during her regime.
The opposition chief also asked her party leaders and activists to stage mass sit-in near the Supreme Court complex in central Dhaka on June 9 to protest "government's interference into the judicial system" and countrywide protest rallies on June 17.
Earlier, security was beefed up in and around Paltan Maidan area in the city as officials said some 1700 policemen and elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion troops were deployed at different strategic points at Paltan area, where Hasina narrowly survived a grenade attack carried out by militants allegedly backed by a section of BNP leaders in 2004.
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