Bangladesh's BNP to hold countrywide protest on Wednesday

Dhaka: The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Monday announced a countrywide demonstration on Wednesday to protest the conviction of party's senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman in a money laundering case.

The demonstration will be held at all divisional, district and upazila level headquarters simultaneously, BNP senior joint secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed told the media at the party's Nayapaltan central office in Dhaka, the Daily Star reported.

Earlier on Saturday, the party observed a similar programme on the same issue.

Terming the money laundering case as an outcome of the government's "politics of vengeance", Rizvi accused it of "heading with a plan to keep Khaleda Zia and her elder son Tarique Rahman away from politics".

"The party will raise their voices protesting against the government's misdeeds, mismanagement and falsehood, and they will not bow down their heads in any circumstance," he said.

On Thursday, the Dhaka High Court sentenced Tarique to seven years of imprisonment and fined Taka 20 crore, quashing a lower court's verdict acquitting him in the money-laundering case.