'Declare mid-term polls to avoid ouster'

"The government should declare mid- term election before our January 10 grand rally to avert an oust-government movement", AL Presidium member Abdus Samad Azad told a big meeting at Pabna Townhall field in the evening.

AL central leaders Tofail Ahmed, Akhtaruzzaman, Muhammad Nasim, Prof Abu Sayeed, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir and local leaders Khairuzzaman Liton, Saidul Haque and Musarraf Hossain addressed the meeting.

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District AL President Wazi Uddin Khan presided.

AL earlier said it will launch a oust-government movement from its January 10 grand rally at Paltan Maidan in Dhaka.It is holding public meetings in districts to make its Paltan rally a success.

Samad said his party is demanding mid-term polls as the "failed BNP-Jamaat government is trying to cling to power through repression".

People voted them to power as they pledged peace and development. But in the last two years, they themselves destroyed peace by "letting lose party goons and extortionists on the people and opposition activists".

Awami League leaders and activists are being killed every day in different areas of the country. Crimes including murders have increased but people are not getting justice and ruling party men are behind most of such incidents, Samad alleged.

The government had pledged to improve law and order, but the situation has deteriorated, he said.

Turning to the economy, he said many mills and factories have been closed in the last two years. Jute mill workers are on strike now. Rice price started increasing immediately after the harvest. "Are these signs of development?" he posed the question.

He also alleged that the government is destroying parliamentary democracy by not allowing parliament to function properly. The Opposition is not allowed to speak there, he claimed.

Samad Azad called upon the people to unite for a movement and to make its Paltan rally a success.

Tofail Ahemd said corruption, "repression" on minorities, and politicisation of the administration and the judiciary have increased under the present government.

Law and order has deteriorated as the government has released identified criminals and killers from jails he said and asked it to step down "before it is too late".

Muhammad Nasim said the country's image has been tainted in the alst two years as it failed to protest rights of minorities and indigenous people.