BANGLADESH

The opposition BNP has announced fresh agitation after the Eid-ul-Azha over the demand of elections under a non-party government.

"The people have turned their back on the government. They want change. They don't want to see this government again," BNP Standing Committee Member Nazrul Islam Khan told a human chain programme in front of the National Press Club on Friday.

"A non-partisan government is needed so that the people can vote whoever they like," he said.

"We'll give momentum to our movement over the demand after the Eid. No election will be allowed without a non-party government," Khan added.

The human chain programme was organised by the Mohila Dal's Mohammadpur unit in the city in protest against the arrest of Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal chief Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal.

He termed the government 'a failure on all fronts' and said it had led to the country being labelled 'corrupt' in the global arena. The government itself was neck-deep in corruption, he added.

The BNP leader also termed 'most shameful' the visit of a World Bank panel to review Anti-Corruption Commission's investigations into the alleged corruption in the Padma bridge project.

A new defence witness for Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee on Sunday said there were no incidents of loot, plunder or arson during the nine-month Liberation War.

Abdul Halim Fakir, aged 55, said he was a student of ninth grade during the war, but did not see any Pakistani soldiers or their collaborators raid his village.

Although a large hospital bed, as ordered by the tribunal on Thursday, had been arranged and lay before the court, Sayedee's 15th defence witness, who had taken ill over lunch on Wednesday, did not need to lie down.

The 65-year old Abdus Salam Howladar faced Prosecutor Syed Haider Ali's cross-examination, which concluded to make way for another new witness from Sayedee's defence.

The three-judge International Crimes Tribunal-1, set up to try crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War, indicted the Jamaat executive council leader for 20 war crimes on Oct 3, 2011.

The allegations include murder, rape, arson and loot in and around Parerhat of Pirojpur.

Saydee's third son, Masood Sayedee, has also completed his cross-examination. The defence submitted a large volume of material through Masood as he has been mainly assisting the defence team with material for cross-examination of prosecution witnesses.

There were no further witnesses for Sayedee although the defence still has four more witnesses to go.

The tribunal said after lunch, referring to its order of Thursday (Oct 18) that an order had already been passed and it stood. The tribunal had ordered that Sayedee's defence would not be allowed any more time after Sunday if they failed to bring all their witnesses on that day.

When Prosecutor Syed Haider Ali approached the tribunal to fix a date for closing argument which would be the next phase of the trial, chairman Justice Mohammad Nizamul Huq said, "An appropriate order will be passed tomorrow."

Jamaat chief defence counsel Abdur Razzaq put to the tribunal several times that the defence had already filed applications in this regard and if the tribunal chose to pass order in chambers, the defence be heard.

The tribunal, however, did not commit either way. Before rising, it reminded the senior defence counsel that he had failed to produce his remaining four witnesses by the end of the day.

Gonoforum and Bikalpadhara Bangladesh Presidents Dr Kamal Hossain and Prof AQM Badruddoza claimed on Sunday the country was not doing well and called for political unity to emerge from the situation.

Kamal and Chowdhury who broke away from the ruling Awami League and opposition BNP, respectively, did not outline what should the basis of the unity be or with whom it should be forged, however.

The senior politicians emerged from a programme titled 'Announcement of a greater national unity' at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel to speak to reporters but would not make it clear whether their parties were mulling over joining forces.

Columnist Syed Abul Maksud and Ganasashthya Kendra chief Jafrullah Chowdhury also spoke at the programme.

"Our politics and governing system are infected with disease. But there is always a cure however serious the disease is," said Hossain, also a former Foreign Minister of Bangladesh.

"The people of Bangladesh have that strength. And the strength is political unity. Let us come together to forge a unity to make ailing politics healthy."

Chowdhury, the former President of Bangladesh, said, "Greedy politicians, some selfish businessmen and bureaucrats are pulling the country from behind. All must stand up against them."

"That's why politics of unity needs be pursued. The unity can be built without dissolving respective political parties.

Referring to their past records of rubbing shoulders with chiefs of the AL and BNP, a journalist asked whether they planned alliances with any of them again.

"There is no chance of making a scapegoat (out of people)," said Dr Kamal, who had joined the Awami League-led 14-party alliance formed to wage movement against BNP.

"There is no question of having Iftar until they (BNP) swear over the Quran that they would not get involved in criminal activities or corruption anymore, endanger democracy and unleash torture on the opposition," said Chowdhury who recently showed solidarity with several BNP programmes.

Badruddoza Chowdhury, the founding Secretary General of BNP, had Iftar with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia last Ramadan and is supporting the BNP in its demand for reinstating caretaker government for overseeing the next parliamentary elections.

Parting ways with the Awami League, Hossain floated Gonoforum about two decades ago, but joined a coalition with the party once again in 2004.

Both Gonoforum and Bikalpadhara were with the Awami League-led alliance until the forestalled parliamentary elections of Jan 22, 2007. But they moved away from the Awami League in the 2008 elections.

Regarding his party's support for reinstating caretaker government system, Chowdhury said, "The verdict cancelling the constitutional amendment said two more elections can be staged under caretaker government. We had gone there only to express our support for caretaker government system."

When asked whether his efforts for unity are only election-centric, Hossain said, "The 2008 elections were the result of the coalition we had formed, the demands we had raised in 2004, though I did not join the coalition at the last moment."

Answering a question over the format of next caretaker government, the Gonoforum chief said, "A civil uprising, public hearing and the demand of the masses will decide what the government will look like and what the election process will be."

The programme was moderated by former Organising Secretary of Awami League Mahmudur Rahman Manna.

Manna was excluded from Awami League's central committee after his role during the immediate-past military-backed caretaker government earned him the tag of one of the reformists, who are widely believed to have supported then the rulers' idea of getting riding of Hasina and Khaleda from politics.

Senior journalist ABM Musa and Prothom Alo's Associate Editor Mizanur Rahman Khan also spoke at the programme.

Maksud backed the statements of the two senior political figures and commented that "they should be assisted" in their new effort.

Musa was optimistic that the leaders will "fulfil expectations of the people".