Activists on Tuesday demanded that the government implement the six-point Phulbari agreement, signed in 2006, by September, otherwise they would wage a tougher movement.
They made the demand while commemorating the anniversary of Phulbari Movement in which three people were killed on August 26, 2006, during protests against proposed open-pit mining by Asia Energy at Phulbari in Dinajpur.
Under the deal, the then BNP-led government agreed to cancel multinational Asia Energy鈥檚 work permit in Bangladesh, scrap plans for open-pit mining, compensate the victims and withdraw complaints lodged against Phulbari protesters.
On Tuesday, activists demanded withdrawal of cases filed against the protesters and scrap all controversial energy deals with foreign stakeholders.
National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports central leader Anu Muhammad, also a former Jahangirnagar University professor, on Tuesday at a discussion at Phulbari said that after 19 years the six-point Phulbari agreement had not been implemented yet.
He called on the interim government, which assumed office in August past year after the ouster of the authoritarian Awami League regime in a mass uprising, to take steps for the implementation of the six-point demand by September, otherwise the National Committee would wage a tougher movement to compel the government to realise the demands.
Chaired by local leader of National Committee, Syed Saiful Islam Jewel, the rally was addressed, among others, by central leaders Tipu Biswas and Mosharraf Hossain Nannu, and local leaders Hamidul Haque Nuruzzaman and Joy Prakash Gupta.聽
Central organisers of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports observed the day with placing wreaths at the Central Shaheed Minar in the capital Dhaka.
Leaders of the Left Democratic Alliance, Anti-fascism Left Alliance, Communist Party Bangladesh, Socialist Party of Bangladesh, Revolutionary Communist League and others placed wreaths at the Central Shaheed Minar.
Phulbari unit of the committee also organised daylong programmes that included placing of wreaths at a memorial on the bank of the Chota Jamuna River at Phulbari.
On August 26, 2006, local people under the banner of the National Committee raged a bold demonstration against Asia Energy.
Three demonstrators 鈥� Amin, Salakin and Toriqul 鈥� were shot dead and hundreds of people injured when the Bangladesh Rifles (now the Border Guard Bangladesh) personnel opened fire to disperse the protest rally.
After four days of the incident, the then Rajshahi city mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu, on behalf of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government, signed the six-point agreement with the protesters led by the national committee.
But the agreement, however, is yet to be fully executed although 19 years have elapsed, said local leaders of the national committee.
The injured are still deprived of due compensation, while the successive governments have not scrapped plans for an open-pit mining at Barapukuria coal field in Dinajpur, violating the Phulbari agreement, they said.
