'Vow to resist anarchy'

Referring to Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina's call to the party men to come to Dhaka with oars and poles of boats the day Justice KM Hasan takes over as the chief of the caretaker government, he said the people then will come out onto the streets with sickles, which farmers use to cut sheaves of paddy, to resist them.

Tarique was addressing a grand reunion of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), the student wing of the BNP, at Dhaka University playground as the chief guest.

Refuting the allegation that BNP-Jamaat coalition government has appointed Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice MA Aziz only to manipulate election results, he said the government of Sheikh Hasina had also appointed a CEC of their choice with a view to resorting to election engineering.

But their conspiracy has failed as the people had voted the four-party alliance to power, he added.

Tarique said all the previous voter lists had seen an increase of 23 or 24 percent in the number of voters, but it was 32 percent in 2001 when the Awami League government prepared the voter list.

Communication Minister Nazmul Huda, DU Vice-chancellor (VC) Prof SMA Faiz, Pro-VC Prof AFM Yusuf Haider, Treasurer Prof Syed Rashidul Hasan, former VC Anwarullah Chowdhury, Jagannath University VC Prof Sirajul Islam, Housing and Public Works Minister Mirza Abbas and State Minister for Labour and Employment Aman Ullah Aman attended the reunion.

JCD Senior Vice-president Sultan Salauddin Tuku, DU JCD President Hasan Mamun, General secretary Saiful Islam Firoz and former presidents and general secretaries of the student organisation also attended the programme.

Presided over by JCD President Azizul Bari Helal, the programme was conducted by General Secretary Shafiul Bari Babu.