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NCP leaders and activists at the mass rally in Shahbagh
Nahid Islam, Convenor of the National Citizen Party (NCP) and Chief Whip of the Opposition in Parliament, has demanded the immediate resignations of Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed and Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources Minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, citing utter failure in discharging their constitutional duties. Issuing a stern ultimatum, the NCP leader warned that if both ministers do not step down, his party will organize nationwide protest marches and lay siege to Prime Minister Tariq Rahman to enforce their demands.
The warning was delivered on Friday afternoon (October 30) during the concluding speech of a mass protest rally held in front of the National Museum at Shahbagh in the capital. The demonstration was jointly organized by the Dhaka Metropolitan North and South units of the NCP to protest what the party termed state-sponsored killings, looting, lawlessness, the breakdown of law and order, hikes in fuel and essential commodity prices, and the partisan takeover of public institutions.
Addressing the gathering, the Opposition Chief Whip stated that NCP leaders had spent the preceding week engaging directly with citizens across Dhaka, uncovering widespread public suffering. He noted that acute residential gas shortages, soaring living costs, rampant extortion, and pervasive violence have crippled ordinary life, severely affecting small business owners, traders, and common citizens alike.
Directing sharp criticism at the Home Minister, Nahid Islam alleged that the government has failed entirely to ensure citizen security and maintain public order. He accused Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed of abandoning primary internal security duties to focus instead on amending the constitution. He asserted that while 70 percent of the electorate backed the aspirations of the July mass uprising and the July Charter in a public referendum, the Home Minister has ignored that popular mandate to undertake constitutional revisions. Contending that both the Home and Energy ministers have comprehensively failed in their respective portfolios, he declared that ongoing violence, enforced disappearances, and energy crises necessitate their immediate exits. The rally drew several thousand party activists who gathered across the National Museum square and adjoining thoroughfares, attended by NCP mayoral candidates for Dhaka's two city corporations, Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain and Nasiruddin Patwari.
https://thedailyexpress.news/news/politics/1f1d48ae-3ae4-63a0-9e27-626e1202753c