Two BNP allies denounce air strikes

By Our Special Correspondent

DHAKA, OCT. 9.Two alliance partners of the Prime Minister-elect, Begum Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), have protested against the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan.

Several radical Islamic organisations and Left parties organised processions and protest rallies in Dhaka, Chittagong and other places denouncing the attack. The demonstrators also burnt the U.S. flag and demanded that the Government withdraw strategic facilities to the U.S.-led coalition. While understandably, the fundamentalist Jamaat-E-Islami's protest has been limited, its militant student wing, the Islami Chatra Shibir, joined in anti- U.S. demonstrations at several places. Militant activists of the Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ), the Islami Constitution Movement (ICM) and Khelafat Andolon took to the streets denouncing the attack on Afghanistan as ``against Islam''.

Maulana Matiur Rahman Nizami, the Jamaat chief, said in a statement that the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan were ``not acceptable'' and demanded an immediate halt. But the IOJ leaders, whose Taliban connections are believed to be stronger, asked Begum Khaleda Zia to withdraw the Government's support to the U.S. Key Jamaat-E-Islami and IOJ leaders, some of whom had opposed Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan, are likely to be included in the new Cabinet which may be sworn-in tomorrow. The new cabinet will be formed even as the Awami League holds a six- hour countrywide blockade programme against the ``naked manipulation of the poll results''. Security has been increased around U.S., British and several Western Embassies.

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Section  : International
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