Mass agitation after Eid

"Husk is being sold at Tk 16 now", the former agriculture minister said at a public meeting at Palashbari on Monday.

"There is no difference now between BNP and the forces defeated in 1971", she said at the meeting held on S M High school ground organised by the 14-party opposition alliance.

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Together, they have created an image abroad that Bangladesh is a country sheltering fundamentalists and "terrorists". The country and its people are suffering for that, the AL presidium member said.

She bitterly criticised the government for deaths in "crossfire. This is killing without trial and violation of people's fundamental rights.

The 4-party alliance government is obstructing people's protests against the killings and repression by ruling party men. They are trying politically liquidate the opposition to stay in power.

The government is doing these in the name of improving law and order, but it has not improved, she claimed.

She urged the people to unite to launch a movement against the government's "misdeeds". Awami League will launch a mass movement after the Eid-ul-Azha to dislodge the government.

Turning to the economic front, the AL leader said several thousand small and medium industries have been closed since the takeover by the government because of its wrong policy.

"Jute mill workers barricaded railway and roads in Khulna today to realise their eight-point demand", she said.

Mentionably, workers of two jute mills in Khulna are agitating to press their eight-point demand including a halt to retrenchment.

The former minister said this government has closed down Adamjee Jute Mills, the biggest industry in the country, throwing several thousand employees out of jobs. Some other jute mills in Jessore are also sick now, facing closure. Prices of essentials including rice have gone beyond the reach of the commonman. They expressed "no confidence" against the government through a massive participation in the cross-country December 11 human wall from Teknaf to Tentulia, said Motia.

This government is sheltering godfathers of criminals and killing leaders and activists of opposition parties indiscriminately. Such killings will not go unchallenged by people, she said.

Presided over by Palashbari Awami League President Toffazal Hossain, the meeting was addressed by, among others, central AL Organising Secretary Mahamudur Rahman Manna, party central leader Fazley Rabbi, Workers Party Politbureau member Fazley Hossain Badsha, CPB (Communist Party of Bangladesh) central leader Shahadat Hossain, and Gaibandha Awami League President Mohammed Khaled.