The BNP's student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal has threatened to launch countrywide movements to topple the caretaker government if it did not release ailing BNP leader Tarique Rahman to seek overseas treatment.
JCD activists, in a protest rally in front of Dhaka University arts faculty on Tuesday, also demanded the release of his mother detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia.
"The government must release Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman unconditionally and send Tarique abroad. Otherwise we will go for a movement to oust the government," JCD central committee senior vice president Sultan Saluddin Tuku said.
"Tarique has been very ill over a long period. All the medical boards have advised sending him abroad and the High Court recommended the government do the same," he said.
"Our question is why the government is not sending him abroad after all the recommendations?" the leader said.
JCD organising secretary Abdul Kader Jewel termed the caretaker government's actions illegal.
"The government has detained Khaleda Zia and Tarique without 'any charges'."
"If they are not released immediately, we will besiege the whole of Bangladesh," he threatened.
JCD activists on Monday went on the rampage at Dhaka University, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and Dhaka College over the news that Tarique slipped and injured himself in the bathroom at BSMMU Hospital prison ward.
The elder son of detained former prime minister was transferred to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Medical University Hospital from Dhaka Central Jail months after his arrest on March 7, 2007.
BNP has been demanding the government release the senior joint secretary general for medical treatment abroad.
Subject: Free Tarique or fall: Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal to govt ............. 
Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:22 pm
