"Resist this failed and repressive government of BNP and Jamaat," Hasina said addressing a grand rally at Paltan Maidan in the capital. "Ousting this government, people's power will be given back to people."

Hasina, also the president of the main opposition Awami League (AL), urged the police and other law enforcement agencies to work neutrally and stop atrocities on the opposition leaders and workers.

"You are the employees of the state…not of BNP and Jamaat. Don't perform your duties as protectors of BNP and Jamaat," she told the law-enforcers from the rally amid tight security in and around the venue.

Hasina asked her party leaders and activists to prepare a list of the government-backed hoodlums and police officers who are harassing the opposition men by implicating them in false cases.

She presented a dismal picture of governance and failures of the government, asking it to step down immediately "showing respect to the public demand."

The opposition leader reiterated the demand for a free and fair election and urged the countrymen to be aware about their voting rights. She alleged the government is making all arrangements to rig the next general elections.

"We will resist any attempt to rig the election," she told the rally at Paltan Maidan that virtually turned into a human sea, as thousands of people from different districts poured into the historic ground and adjacent areas.

Chanting antigovernment slogans and carrying placards and banners, the AL and other opposition party activists flooded into the Gulistan, Noor Hossain Square, Golap Shah mazar, Press Club, Paltan, Dainik Bangla crossing and Shapla Chattar areas.

The 11-party alliance and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) also held rallies as part of their simultaneously antigovernment agitation.

Referring to an allegation raised by the Prime Minister Khaleda Zia that the opposition, being instigated by a foreign country, hatched a conspiracy to topple the government, Hasina asked the prime minister to name that country.

The former prime minister alleged that BNP formed government with the religious extremist groups and anti-liberation forces and harboured militancy in the country.

The opposition leader appealed to the Bangladesh development partners to conduct an enquiry to find how much money the prime minister and her family members have smuggled out of the country and deposited in foreign banks.

The AL chief pledged that if her party gets a chance to govern the country again, it will bring down prices of essentials, curb corruption, establish rule of law and create jobs for unemployed youths.

She also promised to ensure an independent judiciary and independent and functional anti-corruption commission.

The former prime minister demanded retrospective effect to the national pay scale since 2002 saying that the prime minister (Khaleda Zia) and her cabinet colleagues had raised their remuneration in 2002 showing the reason of price hike.

She said at least 27 bomb blasts and grenade attacks took place in the country since the present government took office, killing 262 people. "But not a single culprit has been arrested while the government has failed to dig out any of the incidents."

"They (government) will not investigate the grenade attacks properly as they are involved in these crimes," the opposition leader alleged.

Hasina said the government deprived her of the opportunity to pay homage to the Bangladeshi peacemakers killed in Congo. "I am the opposition leader and a former prime minister, also in charge of defence ministry, but the government did not allow me to join the ceremony at the Army Stadium," she alleged.

Most of the senior leaders of the AL addressed the rally.

TIGHT SECURITY
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) took tight security measures in and around the venues of rallies of the AL and other opposition parties yesterday in the wake of several bomb attacks on political and cultural programmes.

Police checked most of the people who came to join the rally of the main opposition party. Besides, huge contingents of police were deployed in Shahbag, Press Club, Paltan, Motijheel, Bangabandhu Avenue and Dhaka University areas.

The law-enforcers stood guard atop most of the high-rise buildings near the venues of the opposition rallies. Police also restricted the movement of all types of vehicles on the streets adjacent to the meeting places.

The police also cordoned off the entire secretariat area.

LEFT 11-PARY AND JSD RALLIES
Addressing the 11-party alliance rally at Paltan crossing, Manzurul Ahsan Khan, president of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, criticised the government for its failure to check price hike of essentials and religious extremism in the country.

Khan accused the BNP-Jamaat government of harbouring the Islamist militants and demanded expulsion of the war criminals from the cabinet. He asked the government to ban politics based on religion.

Rashed Khan Menon, president of the Workers' Party of Bangladesh, said the BNP-led coalition government established a reign of terror throughout the country through criminal activities and corruption.

Referring to the ban on two extremist parties, Menon said, "The government is showing double standard in the name of banning Islamist extremist groups as there are extremists within the government."

He said the government decision to ban two extremist groups are aimed at pleasing the donors.

Convenor of the 11-party Nurul Islam criticised the government for extra-judicial killings, rising fundamentalism and bad governance.

Gono Forum leader Pankaj Bhattacharya, Gonotantri Party leader Azizul Islam and some other senior leaders of the 11-party also addressed the rally.

JSD President Hasanul Haq Inu and other leaders of the party from a separate rally at Muktangan also asked the government to resign. "The countrymen no longer want to see the misrule of the BNP-Jamaat government."

"Overthrowing the present government though a united movement will be meaningless, if we cannot ensure free and fair elections," Inu told the rally.