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Bangladesh Opposition Threatens Strike If Security Law Not Repealed
DHAKA (News Agencies) - Bangladesh opposition parties on Thursday threatened to call a nationwide strike unless Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed's government repealed a controversial security law.
"Repeal the black law immediately which is being used to harass and repress the opposition or else we will be forced to take tough action, like general strikes and siege," Khaleda Zia, chief of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), told several thousand supporters at a party rally in downtown Dhaka.
"Despite committing offences, government party supporters are not charged under the law, while the opposition is not spared. A law cannot have two sides."
The Public Safety Act, enacted in January 2000, is designed to allow authorities to set up special courts for the swift trial of people suspected of crimes including extortion, kidnapping, ransom and damaging vehicles.
It initially allowed for suspects to be held without bail although this was later amended.
Leaders of a BNP-led, four-party opposition alliance flanked Zia, who was premier between 1991 and 1996, at the rally, including Raushan Ershad of the main faction Jatiya Party, Jamaat-i-Islami chief Matiur Rahman Nizami and rightwing Islami Oikkya Jote chief Azizul Huq.
Zia said Sheikh Hasina's ruling Awami League would not return to power in the next general elections as it had failed to run the country, but there would be a government made up of the four-party alliance.
The opposition leader also called for a mass march on January 18th to press for a repeal of the law.
Lawyers for a BNP senior leader and his son, who were charged under the PSA earlier this month, had asked the High Court to drop the charges on grounds they were illegal.
On Thursday the High Court ordered the government to explain why the law should not be declared "unconstitutional and void," the BSS news agency said.
Judges Abu Sayeed Ahammad and Mohammad Khademul Islam Chowdhury also asked the home ministry why the charge and proceedings against the BNP leader and his son "should not be held to have been done without lawful authority."
The hearing resumes Sunday.
Meanwhile, President Shahabuddin Ahmed on Thursday inaugurated the new year's first session of parliament, despite a boycott by the opposition, saying he hoped democracy would be further strengthened in the days ahead.
"This year the parliament will complete its tenure and the next elections will be held under a neutral caretaker government," he said.
"People will be able to exercise their right of franchise to further strengthen the country's democracy."
The BNP and its allies refused to attend parliament, the seventh since Bangladesh became independent in 1971, since the 13th session claiming they were not allowed to speak their mind. The current parliament is the 21st session.
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