Accept the seven points before the one point, Jamaat Amir tells government at Jessore road meeting

Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Dr. Shafiqur Rahman has said: 'The seven-point demands are not the personal demands of any political party or leader; they are the demands of the people. By denying the verdict of the referendum, the government has insulted the people. The people will answer through implementing their verdict. The 11-party unity has taken to the streets with these demands on behalf of the people. So accept the seven points before the one point.'

He made the remarks on Saturday night (31 October) at a road meeting of the 11-party unity's Dhaka-Khulna-Jessore-Jhenaidah-Kushtia long march at Murali intersection in Jessore.

Referring to the referendum, the Jamaat Amir said: 'Nearly 70 percent of the people voted yes in the referendum. Yet the government has denied that public verdict. Although the verdict of the parliamentary election was snatched away, they could not snatch away the verdict of the referendum. Before coming to power, the government said it would accept the referendum, but after taking power it has moved away from that position. They have denied your verdict, insulted you and disregarded you. The people will take revenge for this, God willing. The people will take revenge by implementing their verdict.'

Identifying implementation of the referendum verdict as the most important among the seven-point demands, Dr. Shafiqur Rahman said: 'Because this demand has not been implemented, problems have been created over the remaining six demands. To build a Bangladesh that is just, free of discrimination and expected by the youth, the first demand must be implemented before all others.'

Calling on the government, he said: 'There is still time; show good sense while there is time. If the time passes, no one will look back at you anymore.'

In his speech, the Jamaat Amir also raised questions about the government's various card distribution programmes. He asked the crowd present who among them had received such cards. When no one raised a hand, he asked: 'Are you not the people of Bangladesh?'

He said: 'These cards are being given with the people's money. Then why are ordinary people not getting them?' He also raised the question of where the cards are going. Hinting at irregularities in card distribution, the Jamaat Amir made a sarcastic remark about cards being distributed at night by the side of a pond.

At the start of his speech, Dr. Shafiqur Rahman expressed gratitude to the people of Jessore for waiting a long time to welcome him. He said: 'Out of humanity, and love for the country, the people and this soil, people waited there for a long time.'

After a speech of about 15 minutes, he mentioned the long march's next journey towards Kushtia.

The road meeting, which began in the afternoon, was chaired by Jessore-4 constituency MP and Jessore district Amir Professor Golam Rasul. Speakers at the meeting included Jamaat secretary general Mia Golam Parwar, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis Amir Mamunul Haque, Naib-e-Amir Hamid Hossain Azad, NCP senior joint convener Hasnat Abdullah MP, Jatiya Ganatantrik Party spokesperson Rashed Pradhan, and Dhaka University Central Students' Union (DUCSU) VP Sadik Kayem, among others.