In Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League Party has announced a series of protest programmes in February, including Blockade and a nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal on 18 February. According to a post on the social media platform ‘X’ from Awami League’s verified account on Wednesday, the party will begin distributing leaflets on 1-5 February, followed by protest rallies on 6 and 10 February and Blockade on 16 February. The party also warned that if authorities attempt to obstruct these demonstrations, tougher programmes will be announced.
“At the call of the greatest Bengali of all time, daughter of the father of the nation, the honourable prime minister, and the president of the Bangladesh Awami League, our leader Sheikh Hasina, let us launch an unrelenting mass movement to restore democracy and rebuild the aspirations of the Liberation War,” the party said in a press release issued on Tuesday.
The party announced the protest against ‘the unprecedented breakdown of law and order and security situation in the country’; ‘the runaway prices of essentials’; ‘the attacks on religious minorities and indigenous peoples’; and ‘the attacks on Sufis, Bauls, artists, litterateurs, lawyers, journalists and others’, according to the post.
The party also will protest against ‘the killings, disappearances, and custodial deaths of Awami League leaders, activists, and supporters since Aug-5, 2024’; and ‘Dr. Yunus unjustly benefitting from his position by getting all corruption and tax-evasion cases against him withdrawn and awarding his businesses tax-exemption’, said the release issued.
Through the protest programs, the Awami league will also demand the release of all political prisoners; the withdrawal of all false cases; the proper investigation and trials of all killings including police and ANSAR members; and ‘the resignation of the unelected, unconstitutional, and illegal government headed by Dr. Yunus’, said the post.