Grassroots leaders tell AL high command at marathon extended meeting

Grassroots level leaders attending the extended meeting of the Awami League on Monday (May 26) said they did not want the party either to attend the dialogue with the government or to take part in elections if party president Sheikh Hasina remained behind bars. hey said Sheikh Hasina had been detained in false cases with an ulterior motive and called on the party leadership to announce tougher action programs to get her freed.

The extended meeting began at the auditorium of the Institution of Engineers’ in the morning with 870 delegates from across the country attending.
Delegates of the Awami League central working committee, national executive committee, advisory council, district leaders, representatives from front organisations and former lawmakers spoke at the meeting expressing their views on the political situation, the party’s next course of action and organisational activities. About 50 leaders took part in the deliberations.

‘There is no alternative to movement to get Sheikh Hasina freed under the present circumstances and the party should now go for street protests, even tough action programmes like siege and hartal, if necessary’, president of Pabna district Awami League and former lawmaker Shamsur Rahman Sharif said at the meeting. He said that the whole country had turned into a prison. ‘We are not afraid of going to jail’, he added.

‘We should neither attend the dialogue with the government nor take part in any elections without Sheikh Hasina’, the general secretary of Chittagong city unit Awami League, Enamul Haque Danu said, adding that the false charges brought against Sheikh Hasina must be withdrawn first.
Mizanur Rahim, general secretary of Laxmipur district Awami League, said that the grassroots activists were prepared to make any sacrifice to get Sheikh Hasina freed and urged the party leadership to announce tougher action programmes.

The party’s Lalmonirhat district president Motahar Hossain echoed him saying he did not want the party to participate in the dialogue and the elections without Sheikh Hasina.

Cox’s Bazar district Awami League president Kazi Mujibur Rahman branded the so-called reformists in the party as sycophants of the government and said they should be resisted at any cost.

‘The leaders who want to participate in the dialogue keeping Sheikh Hasina in jail, will be considered enemies of the party’, Natore district Awami League president Sajedur Rahman said.

Kurigram district Awami League president AMSA Amin urged the central leaders to go to the grassroots level activists and exchange ideas on strengthening organisational activities. He said that there was no alternative to street protests to resist the misdeeds of the interim government.
Naogaon district Awami League general secretary Abdul Malek said that the dialogue and elections would be meaningless without presence of Sheikh Hasina.

Maulavibazar district Awami League president Abdus Shahid called for launching a vigorous movement to free Sheikh Hasina and make the government accept the party’s six-point demand to ensure free, fair and credible elections.

All the speakers came down hard on the military-controlled government for its failure to arrest the price spiral of essential commodities and wholesale filing of false cases against politicians. They also called on the Election Commission to cancel immediately its decision to delimit electoral constituencies.

The grassroots leaders submitted their reports to the party high command on the political situation, including the party’s organisational strength at their respective localities and lists of the arrested leaders and activities.