The Jatiya Oikyafront candidates in the six constituencies of Khulna are heavily depending on female activists for their campaigns as most of the men are either on the run or under cover fearing police.

Male leaders and activists are seldom seen campaigning. They remain silent or in hiding to avoid police harassment, locals said, adding that using female activists in the campaigns is a strategy of the alliance.

Jamaat leaders have been nominated by the Jatiya Oikyafront in two constituencies of Khulna.

More than half the constituents in Khulna are women and it makes sense to deploy female activists, BNP leaders said.

Meanwhile, the Awami League campaign has gathered significant momentum. Alongside the nominees, AL leaders and activists are campaigning. Women leaders and activists are also seeking votes going door to door.

In the BNP tent, Principal Tarikul Islam, joint-secretary of city BNP, said, “Male activists are engaged in hanging posters and outdoor activities. So, we wanted to involve women in the campaigns more.”

“It should not be considered as our strategy. It is the reality,” said the BNP leader.

Azizul Bari Helal, the BNP nominee in Khulna-4 (Rupsha, Terakhada, Digholia), said AL activists were attacking BNP leaders and activists campaigning for him and they were also facing police harassment.

He alleged that female AL activists were visiting the homes of women who got benefit under VGF and VGD programmes.

BNP activist Zorina Khatun said, “Our male members are on the run to avoid police harassment. They cannot run their businesses and are even forced to shut their business establishments. We are campaigning to get out of this anarchy.”

The 23-year-old along with similarly aged Tanzila sheikh were distributing leaflets of Rokibul Islam Bokul, the BNP candidate for Khulna-3 (Khalishpur, Daulatpur and Khanjahan Ali), at Boikali in the morning after dropping off their children at school.

Clad in burqas, their faces were covered and they were wearing gloves. Several other women were accompanying them.

“Bokul is my brother of the neighbourhood. So, I am distributing leaflets for him,” she said.

Tanzila alleged that the AL did not give the BNP and other political parties any space for political activities. “Is the country only for the AL?” she asked.

On Friday night, these correspondents visited WAPDA Slum in Rupsha Stand Road and talked to 10 women voters who said female  activists were visiting their home every day.

Harunur Rashid, Krishak League secretary of Dhaka North unit, was attacked allegedly by the activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its students' wing Islami Chhatra Shibir at a makeshift election campaign office of Awami League in Dhaka.

Ten Jamaat-Shibir men, coming on a motorcycle, hit Harunur Rashid, 45, with a heavy object when he was sitting at the campaign office of Kamal Ahmed Majumdar, a contender of Dhaka-15 constituency, at Mirpur around 9:00pm, Dadon Fakir, officer-in-charge (OC) of Mirpur Police Station, claimed.

Awami League activists managed to catch the perpetrators and hand them over to police, the OC said.

Among the detainees, one is Jammat men while two others are Shibir activists, he added.

Police has recovered a crude bomb from them, the police official said.

Harunur Rashid has been admitted to Shaheed Suhrawardi Medical College and Hospital.

A case was filed in this regard at the concerned police station. Dhaka(North) General Secretary of Tati League, SM Mosharref Hossain filed the case accusing 191 BNP leaders and activists.

Three BNP leaders were allegedly picked up by law enforcers from Jashore-Magura highway when they were going to campaign for the BNP candidate of Jashore-3 constituency this morning.

The three leaders are Golam Reza Dulu, BNP vice-president of district unit; Nurunnabi, BNP president of Sadar upazila unit; and Kamal Hossain Babu, Jubo Dal president of Fatehpur upazila.

WHAT HAPPENED?

The BNP candidate for Jashore-3 constituency, Anindya Islam Amit, and the three other BNP leaders were on their way for campaigning.

Their vehicle was intercepted with a truck after it passed Panchbaria area on the highway, Amit told The Daily Star.

Law enforcers got off the truck around 10:45am and detained the three leaders, Amit said.

He claimed that members of both Rapid Action Battalion and Police were among the team members.

Stepping into Chuadanga on Sunday afternoon, the first thing that stood out was the absence of “sheaf of paddy”, the electoral symbol of the BNP.

Only posters of the ruling party candidate Solaiman Haque Zoarder Selun and a few sporting the “hand fan” symbol of Islami Shasantantra Andolon and the “hurricane” symbol of Muslim League could be seen.

For a 200km stretch -- from Jashore to Kushtia, via Jhenaidah, Chuadanga-Meherpur -- the situation was the same.

In Chaudanga-1 constituency, comprising Chuadanga Sadar and Alamdanga upazilas, ruling party activists were campaigning in small groups. However, not a single BNP activist could be seen.

“Where is the BNP office?” this correspondent asked a tea stall owner. He pointed to a direction which led to an unassuming one storey building with no visible signs of being an office. There were no posters; not even of Md Sharifuzzaman, the Jatiya Oikyafront candidate. 

At the entry, a person introduced himself as Advocate Moniruzzaman, stepbrother of Shamsuzzaman Dudu, the BNP's central leader. He said the district BNP had rented out a portion of his house to use as the party office.

“But there are no activities here. All the election work is being conducted from Oikyafront candidate Sharifuzzaman's home,” he said.

Sharifuzzaman's house is a two-storey building with a large four-foot by two-foot banner, seeking votes for the “sheaf of paddy”, hanging in front of it.

Inside the house, piles of printed posters were gathering dust at a corner of the balcony.

This is also where a crowd of BNP activists could be seen.

Queried on why they were not hanging the posters, an Oikyafront worker said they had not gotten the chance to do so.

“Our workers cannot go to the field as ruling party men are attacking them. They even attacked my motorcade and injured the president of Jubo Dal,” said Md Sharifuzzaman.

Police are also filing cases against our activists, said Sharifuzzaman.

“Actually it seems as though we are contesting against the administration, not the Awami League. If the administration would not help them, they would not be able to stand in front of us,” he said.

Police have filed a total of seven cases against BNP men since the election commission announced the polls schedule. BNP men also filed three cases against AL activists, along with filing 12 complaints to the deputy commissioner alleging election code of conduct violations, he said.

“So we are waiting for the election day. We are not quitting…  If necessary, we will resist them,” Sharifuzzaman, a member of the district BNP convening committee said.

Another Oikyafront candidate, in Chuadanga-2, Mahmudul Hasan Khan Babu, had to leave his constituency for Dhaka due to oppression by ruling party men, he claimed.

However, when asked over phone, Babu said he had gone to Dhaka for some work and would return the next day. 

The AL candidate, Selun, denied allegations of using force against the opposition.

“I don't know whether the opposition is conducting their campaign or not; I am busy with my campaign,” Selun said.

The lack of pre-election festivity was glaringly present but more worrying was that the general people from Chuadanga and Meherpur seemed to have no interest in discussing the elections.

When this correspondent asked a grocer about the election atmosphere, he showed no willingness to discuss it or even try to guess who would win.

Another college teacher chose to speak but requested that his name not be published as he did not want “any trouble”.

“I do not want to talk in favour or against any of them,” he said.

On the way to Meherpur, at the banks of the Matha Bhanga river, trucks carried bauls singing songs inspiring people to vote.

Unlike Chuadanga, there were more BNP activists there.

Oikyafront candidate Masud Arun has been conducting election campaign from his office in College Road, Meherpur.

“In the town there is not much problem for our activists. But our campaigners are facing problems in the villages. Almost every day they are facing attacks by ruling party activists.

“I am conducting my campaign every day, but it has become a curse for my men. Police are arresting my people if they join my campaign.

“It seems my popularity is the reason behind the police repression on my party activists,” he said.

Arun alleged that in the last month, around 14 cases had been filed against thousands of BNP leaders and activists.

“They are even going the houses of BNP activists at night and arresting them. They [BNP activists] are not able to stay at home,” he said, adding that he hoped the police would play an impartial role in the coming days.  

He alleged that some police officers were arresting his men only for money. However, he did not raise allegations against his opponent Forhad Hossain Dodul, the candidate of the grand alliance led by AL.

When asked about Arun's allegations against the police, Md Mustafizur Rahman, superintendent of police in Meherpur, said they had rounded up only those who were accused in subversive cases filed earlier.

“We are trying to resist those who can cause anarchy during the election period,” he said. All of those arrested had records of creating anarchy in the past, he added.

“We have arrested many ruling party men who were involved in creating nuisance. But they never mention that.”

At least 15 people were hurt during an attack on an election campaign of opposition Jatiya Oikyafront in Chattogram’s Fatickchhari today.

The injured include Oikyafront’s candidate for the constituency Azim Ullah Bahar and his associates, our local staff correspondent reports.

Bahar alleged, Chhatra League men known as ‘Tayeb Bahini’ attacked his campaign at Tokirhat around 2:30pm and foiled their campaign.

Fatickchari police station Officer-in-Charge Babul Akter confirmed The Daily Star of the attack and said “miscreants” swooped on his campaign.

Confirming reports of injuries, he said BNP men blocked a road at Jongkar Road area protesting the attack and vandalised some vehicles there. Five men were detained in this connection and additional police deployed.

Meanwhile, the AL men allegedly attacked another election campaign of Islami Front Bangladesh candidate Saifuddin Ahmed Maijbhandari at Bhujpur union in Fatickchhari.

Saifuddin told The Daily Star: “Cadres of AL candidate Najibul Bashar Maijbhandari attacked us during our campaign and took away our loud speakers.”

“The attacks left 12 workers of my party injured,” claimed the candidate.

Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Bhujpur Sheikh Abdullah said: “We went to the spot and found nothing. We have advised the candidate to file a written complaint.”