Saying a silent famine is under way in the country, Jatiya Party (Kazi Zafar) chairman Mostafa Jamal Haider said the "anti-people, illegal government" keeps raising fuel, gas and electricity prices again and again. He said a syndicate of pro-government traders has created an artificial crisis, pushing up the prices of rice, lentils, flour, oil, salt, fish, meat and eggs, and even taking farmed chicken, the poor man's protein, to Tk 250.

He said the government has put the country on the road to bankruptcy through a secret power deal with the Adani Group. The power import agreement with Adani must be cancelled immediately, he said, adding that dissolving parliament and the government's resignation had become the demand of the country and its people.

He spoke on Saturday (11 March) at a human chain on the road beside the Bijoynagar water tank in the capital, organised by the 12-party alliance to press a 10-point demand including lower prices of essentials.

Bangladesh Jatiya Dal chairman Advocate Syed Ehsanul Huda said there was no alternative before the people to a one-point movement to topple the government. Through a mass movement this illegal government would be brought down, he said, and democracy and people's voting rights restored through an election under a non-party neutral government.

The human chain was chaired by Mostafa Jamal Haider and moderated by Bangladesh Kalyan Party joint secretary general Abdullah Al Hasan Sakib. Other speakers included Bangladesh Kalyan Party chairman Maj Gen (retd) Syed Muhammad Ibrahim, Bangladesh Labour Party chairman Mostafizur Rahman Iran, Bangladesh LDP secretary general Shahadat Hossain Selim, National Democratic Party (NDP) chairman Muhammad Abu Taher, Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam Bangladesh secretary general Mufti Golam Mohiuddin Ikram, Bangladesh Muslim League (BML) chairman Sheikh Zulfikar Bulbul Chowdhury, Jatiya Ganatantrik Party (Jagpa) general secretary Iqbal Hossain, NAP-Bhasani chairman Azharul Islam, Bangladesh Islamic Party secretary general Abul Kashem and Islami Oikya Jote secretary general Abdul Karim.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.