The Bangladesh Nationalist Party of former prime minister Khaleda Zia will hold sit-in programmes in front of its party offices across the country on Wednesday and Thursday, demanding a trial be conducted against ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina for “genocide".
Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi announced the programme on Tuesday and said that a prayer session will be held to commemorate Khaleda Zia’s 79th birthday on Friday and to pray for those killed in the protest, The Dhaka Tribune reported.
Special prayers have been arranged in Hindu temples and other places of worship, the report said.
Rizvi urged all leaders and activists of the BNP and its affiliated organisations to participate in these programmes.
Over 230 people were killed in Bangladesh in the incidents of violence that erupted across the country following the fall of the Hasina government on August 5, taking the death toll to 560 since the anti-quota protests first started in mid-July.
An interim government was formed after the fall of the Hasina-led government, and its Chief Adviser, 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, announced the portfolios of his 16-member council of advisors last week.
On Monday, seven political parties, including the Awami League's arch-rival BNP, met Yunus separately and said the interim government could take the time necessary to create a conducive environment for holding free and fair elections, The Daily Star newspaper reported.
Former prime minister Zia, 78, was released from jail after Hasina's ouster. She was sentenced to 17 years in prison for graft in 2018.
