Don’t pay taxes & bills: B’desh Oppn party urges citizens, calls for civil disobedience against govt

Bangladesh’s main opposition BNP on Wednesday called for a “non-cooperation” movement against the Awami League-led government, urging people not to pay taxes and utility bills, as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched her poll campaign amid political unrest ahead of the January 7 elections.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its mostly far-right allies allege that no election under the incumbent dispensation would be fair and demand the restoration of a non-party interim government for election oversight by amending the country’s Constitution.

“There is no alternative to the launch of non-cooperation of all sorts to establish the rights of every citizen,” BNP spokesman Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told a virtual press conference.

He urged people to start the civil disobedience from Wednesday itself by suspending payment of taxes, and water, gas and electricity bills as part of the movement.

“We urge the countrymen to stick to the demands and boycott the farcical vote,” Rizvi said, adding that he is appealing on behalf of the BNP’s ailing chairperson and former premier Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman, who now lives in London. Rahman is BNP’s acting president.

Several Bangladeshi courts declared Rahman a “fugitive” as he took refuge in the UK to evade jail terms for several criminal charges, including a grenade attack on a rally of the then-opposition Awami League in 2004 in which 24 people were killed.

Hasina narrowly escaped the attack, which also wounded some 500 of her party leaders, activists and supporters.

Zia, 79, was also convicted and jailed on two graft charges with a 17-year jail term. However, she is now in a hospital with multiple health issues.

Prime Minister Hasina warned the BNP: “If you play with fire, you will burn your hand.”