BNP, Jamaat to announce new platform 'All-party Unity against Fascism'
Both parties have prepared for big showdowns under separate banners on 16 December
The BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami are set to announce a new platform called the "All-party Unity against Fascism" to bolster their ongoing demand for the upcoming elections to be conducted under a non-partisan caretaker government.
Sources within the BNP and Jamaat have confirmed that the official announcement of this platform is scheduled for 17-18 December. The platform will include other anti-government parties simultaneously involved in the ongoing movement.
According to the sources, all anti-government political programmes will be collectively organised under the umbrella of the new platform after 16 December. Leaders and activists from the participating parties, spanning central to grassroots levels, will join these programmes together.
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However, those anti-government parties currently engaged in the ongoing movement but choosing not to align with the new platform will continue their concurrent anti-government activities as at present.
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told The Business Standard, "All of us, including the BNP-Jamaat, have decided to come under the same umbrella against the misrule of this government. We anticipate the swift fall of this government and look forward to celebrating our victory soon."
Sources in the BNP-Jamaat said both parties have prepared for big showdowns under separate banners in commemoration of Victory Day on 16 December. The BNP has instructed leaders and activists from districts near Dhaka to join the Victory Day rally in Nayapaltan.
The student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Islami Chhatra Shibir, has also made extensive preparations for a major showdown across the country, including the capital, on the same day.
Meanwhile, during a virtual press conference on Thursday, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said that Awami League ministers are spreading blatant lies domestically and internationally.
Rizvi dismissed the Awami League leaders' claims, including those of Foreign Minister AK Momen and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam, that the US has been "managed" as entirely false, emphasising that the US has outright rejected this assertion, labelling it as "deep fake news."
47 activists of BNP sentenced to prison
A total of 47 BNP leaders and activists, including former Jubo Dal president Saiful Alam Nirob and Dhaka Metropolitan South BNP member secretary Rafiqul Alam Majnu, have been sentenced to varying prison sentences.
On Thursday, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mosharraf Hossain pronounced the verdict in cases from three different police stations in the capital.
In a case filed at the Tejgaon Police Station in 2013, the court handed down a two-and-a-half-year rigorous imprisonment sentence on 14 BNP leaders and activists, including Nirob, on charges of sabotage.
Furthermore, the court sentenced 13 BNP leaders and activists, including Dhaka Metropolitan South BNP member secretary Rafiqul Alam Majnu, to a two-and-a-half-year rigorous imprisonment term in a 2018 sabotage case at Shahjahanpur police station in the capital.
In another case related to sabotage filed at Banani Police Station in 2018, the court also imposed a one-year and nine-month imprisonment sentence on 20 BNP leaders and activists.
Meanwhile, the BNP has claimed that altogether 1,141 leaders and activists of the party have received prison sentences in 72 cases nationwide, with varying terms of imprisonment in the last three and a half months.
Court sources indicate that the majority of these verdicts pertain to political cases dating back to 2013 and 2018.
Mirza Fakhrul accused in 100 cases, denied bail in 11
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, with 100 cases slapped on him, is currently in jail after being denied bail in 11 cases, including one involving vandalism before the chief justice's residence on 28 October, as stated by his lawyer Zainul Abedin yesterday.
He presented the information during a hearing before the High Court bench of Justice Md Selim and Justice Shahed Nuruddin regarding Fakhrul's bail in the vandalism case.
The High Court bench has scheduled 17 December for the next hearing on the BNP leader's bail, despite verbal appeals from his lawyers for an expedited resolution of the matter.
In addition to the vandalism case before the chief justice's residence, of the remaining 10 cases, one involves the murder of police constable Amirul Islam. Mirza Fakhrul's lawyer told TBS that of these 10 cases, seven are lodged at Paltan Police Station, and three at Ramna Model Police Station.
