Dilapidated Road, Rail Complications Too: 11-Party Alliance Postpones Sylhet-Bound Long March, No New Date Set

The Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party alliance had announced a long march to Sylhet by rail as an alternative, because the Dhaka–Sylhet road is in a dilapidated state. But that programme has now been postponed. The long march towards Sylhet was scheduled for November 21 under the earlier announcement, but it will not take place. No new date has been set either.

Sylhet district Jamaat ameer Habibur Rahman told Prothom Alo on Friday evening that the instruction to keep the Sylhet long march postponed came from the centre even before the Khulna long march. They have received no fresh instruction on when the programme will be held.

The 11-party alliance had a separate plan for Sylhet from the very beginning. When the programme was announced on August 6, opposition leader and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Shafiqur Rahman had said the Sylhet long march would be held by rail, unlike the other divisions where buses or roads were to be used.

Jamaat's central leaders said the proposal for a rail long march came from the local level because the highway towards Sylhet is dilapidated. Accordingly, the plan was to travel to Sylhet by train and hold a street rally near the railway station. They believed this would reduce public suffering on the road.

However, a new complication emerged in implementing the programme by rail. Regular passenger trains would also run during the long march. As a result, discussions began on how far it would be possible to carry out a political programme while keeping passenger services normal at the same time. For this reason, the decision to hold the long march by train was taken up for reconsideration.

Asked about the matter, Jamaat secretary general Mia Golam Parwar told Prothom Alo in the evening that no new date has been fixed for the Sylhet-bound long march for now. The party's top leadership will sit and decide on the matter.

Hamidur Rahman Azad, coordinator of the 11-party alliance and Jamaat's assistant secretary general, told Prothom Alo that the next programme of the ongoing movement may be announced after evaluating the past programmes and analysing the country's overall situation.

The 11-party alliance announced the programme of consecutive long marches in four divisions on August 6, pressing six-point demands including implementation of the referendum verdict. Opposition leader and Jamaat ameer Shafiqur Rahman announced it from a sit-in programme at Muktangan in the capital.

Among them, the 11 parties held long marches towards Chattogram on September 5 and towards Rangpur on September 19. As the third programme, the long march towards Khulna division was held on October 31, with its concluding rally in Kushtia.

But the Sylhet-bound long march, set as the last programme among the four divisions, will not be held on November 21. Whether it will be held at all, and if so when, now depends on the decision of the next meeting of the alliance's top leaders.