Jatiya Party, the main opposition party in parliament, has announced a two-day programme to protest against the government’s ‘anti-people’ decision to increase fuel prices. The programme was announced at a meeting of Jatiya Party’s co-chairmen at the party chairman’s Banani office on Sunday, said a press release. As part of the programmes, the party will stage a protest rally on the premises of its Kakrail central office on Monday. Also read: Fuel price hike: Another blow to struggling Bhola fishermen After the rally, it will also bring out a procession that will end in front of the Jatiya Press Club. Besides, the party’s all divisional, district and upazila units across the country will stage demonstrations and protest rallies on Tuesday. In an abrupt move, the government increased the prices of diesel, octane and petrol by 42.5 per cent, 51.7 per cent and 51 per cent respectively on Friday night. Currently, diesel is being sold at Tk 114 per litre, octane at Tk 135 per litre and petrol at Tk 130 per litre. Also read: Don't cry, wake up: Fakhrul to BNP activists Jatiya Party Senior Co-Chairman Barrister Anisul Islam Mahmud, Secretary General Mujibul Haque Chunnu, Co-Chairmen ABM Ruhul Amin Howlader, Kazi Firoz Rashid, Syed Abu Hossain Babla, Salma Islam and Presidium Member Md Shafiqul Islam Sentu were present at the meeting with party chairman GM Quader in the chair.

BNP will stage demonstrations across the country to protest against the ongoing load-shedding and mismanagement in the power and energy sector. BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced the three-day protest programme at a press conference at BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan office. As part of the programmes, BNP’s Dhaka north city unit will stage a demonstration on July 29 while Dhaka south city unit on July 30. All other metropolitan cities will observe the same programmes on the same days. Besides, BNP’s all district units will also stage demonstrations on July 31. Read: Govt promoting officials involved in enforced disappearance: BNP After that, the party will also stage demonstrations at the upazila level on the same issue. BNP standing committee members worked out the programmes at a virtual meeting on Monday. The meeting urged the government to step down admitting its failure to ensure the supply of electricity and energy. Fakhrul said their meeting voiced concern that load-shedding for two-three hours in cities and five-six hours in rural areas has made public life miserable. It also observed that setting up power plants to generate electricity without ensuring energy supply has compounded the problem. “The government has taken the power and energy sector to the path of darkness just out of its greed to plunder public money through corruption.” The BNP policymakers think the power outages are badly affecting the production in industry and agriculture alongside adversely affecting the economy. Fakhrul said they will come up with elaborate information about corruption, anomalies and mismanagement in the power and energy sector at a press conference very soon.

BNP on Friday announced a two-day demonstration programme demanding the cancellation of the results of by-elections to Dhaka-18 and Sirajganj-1 constituencies, and protesting the arrest of its leaders and activists in ‘false’ cases.