<div><b><font color="#085294"><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Instead of giving any harsher programme on the occasion of 31st Night and the English New Year celebration, BNP on Saturday further extended the ongoing mass contact and leaflet distribution programme for two more days until Monday.</span><br></font></b></div><div><br></div><div>Speaking at a virtual press briefing, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi announced the fresh programme which is meant to drum up public support in favour of the party’s call to boycott the Januray-7 election and not cooperating with the Awami League government.</div><div><br></div><div>"Our mass contact and leaflet distribution programme is going on across the country.</div><div><br></div><div>Tomorrow (Sunday) is the last day of the year and the next day is the first day of the New Year….usually many people celebrate these two days in different ways,” the BNP leader said.</div><div><br></div><div>Though the people in Bangladesh are not in a situation to celebrate the days in a joyous mood, he said the BNP decided to extend the mass contact and leaflet distribution programme for those by two days considering the interests of people, he said.</div><div><br></div><div>Rizvi said their party’s like-minded opposition parties will also observe a similar programme.</div><div><br></div><div>&nbsp;“The situation in Bangladesh is different... there is no joy in people's minds as they are living in panic in the country,” he said.</div><div><br></div><div>Rizvi recalled that the Awami League usurped power through unprecedented rigging and night-time ballot stuffing on this day on December 30, 2018. “We condemn it and express our hatred towards them.”</div><div><br></div><div>Earlier on Thursday, the party extended the ongoing mass contact and leaflet distribution programme until Saturday.</div><div><br></div><div>On December 24, the party announced a three-day mass contact and leaflet distribution programme beginning on December 26.</div><div><br></div><div>BNP along with nearly three dozen opposition political parties have been carrying out a simultaneous movement since December 10 last year to force the current government to quit and hold the 12th parliamentary election under a non-party neutral administration.</div><div><br></div><div>BNP’s movement lost its momentum following clashes with law enforcers centring the party’s grand rally on October 28 as many senior leaders, including its secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, were arrested while many others went into hiding in the face of a crackdown by the law enforcers.</div><div><br></div><div>However, BNP and like-minded parties enforced countrywide blockades for 23 days in 12 phases and hartals for five days in four spells since October 29.</div><div><br></div><div>Finally, the opposition party came up with the call for a non-cooperation movement on December 20. - UNB</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>