DHAKA, 10 April 2004 — The opposition Awami League has changed its strategy to oust the four-party Khaleda Zia government by April 30.
The Awami League announced Thursday it now plans a string of anti-government agitation programs, including a siege of the office of the ruling party’s chairman, to involve more people in its attempt to oust the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government. The party chairman’s office is the Hawa Bhaban, a building in Dhaka city near the residence of BNP chief Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, rented by the BNP ahead of the 2001 general election to coordinate electioneering.
After an emergency meeting of the League central working committee, party General Secretary Abdul Jalil said the programs were designed to drum up support for efforts to compel the government to quit by the April 30 deadline. Programs chalked out during the meeting would take the party to April 21, the day scheduled for the Hawa Bhaban siege, with more to follow.
“We will lay siege to the Hawa Bhaban to demand trial of (embezzlers of) public property and refund of the people’s wealth grabbed by the prime minister’s eldest son Tareque Rahman, who leads the informal power center,” Abdul Jalil said.
Three days earlier Tareque Rahman, who is the senior joint secretary general of the BNP, had announced he would no longer occupy the building.
