The citizens of Bangladesh are unwavering for a mass upsurge responding to the call of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). They are protesting against the incorrigible corruption, persecution, state terrorism, unbearable price hikes, and atrocities of the present ruling regime, and raising their voices for liberty and democracy where freedom of expression is a far flung thought. Bangladeshis feel that their country has become one in which elections are a mockery. People who have not been allowed to vote for the last fourteen years are now joining forces with the BNP in the fight to establishing their rights, in an unprecedented manner, rarely seen in the narratives of the country.
There are strong inferences and cryptograms that a massive crackdown if not openly but inertly, is being planned before the finale on December 10, 2022, after nine other colossal divisional rallies have taken place, frightening the ruling government. Massive arrests are already on its way, and the top three youth and student wing leaders of the BNP have been apprehended from Savar while they were returning to Dhaka from the last rally held in Rajshahi, the Northern Divisional headquarter of the country, on December 3.
Government-backed terrorism has been let loose using state machineries, including police forces intimidating the general assembling public and members of the opposition parties to attend the final destination of the divisional rallies in Dhaka, where the final call for a one point movement will be declared.
In the last three days alone, over 1,100 cases have been filed against BNP members. The complainants of the cases are all members of the police force, and the cases filed by them are widely termed as “ghost” (or Gayebi, as known in Bangla) cases where names of the accused are not disclosed. As a result, anyone can be arrested without a warrant under these ghost cases.
Extensive arrests and harassment are being envisaged by the desperate regime as it resorts to clinging onto power. Once again, again false flag terrorist acts are also being designed against the opposition members. Homes, restaurants and public places are searched randomly and barricaded under police cordon only to dissuade and terrorize people entering Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, from attending the grand rally.
A special police security post has been installed on top of the existing police cordon that was already there in front of the house of Begum Khaleda Zia, the Chairperson of the BNP, even though the rallies that took place in nine divisional headquarters were all recorded to be peaceful, in spite of the ruling party’s repeated provocations, obstruction and transport strikes.
This is the time Bangladesh needs more support and back-up from friends, allies and the Bangladeshi diaspora to join forces to liberate the country once again from the despotic, fascist rule and other indomitable influences implanted in the country for the regimes’ elongated rule despite people’s mandate or vote, plundering country’s resources.
We, the members of the Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy for Bangladesh (CHRD Bangladesh), urge the concerned quarters in The United States of America to come forward in support of Bangladesh, at this crisis, as you have been there for the people of Bangladesh before.