Left-leaning political parties under the banner of Samrajabad Birodhi Deshpremik Janagon on Wednesday announced a two-day Dhaka鈥揅hattogram road march for Friday and Saturday, demanding an immediate halt to the proposed lease of Chattogram port facilities to a foreign company.
The parties also demanded scrapping the plan to establish a humanitarian corridor to Myanmar鈥檚 Rakhine State.
At a press conference in the Cheragi Pahar area in the city on the day, leaders of the alliance called upon the people of Chattogram to take to the streets on Saturday as part of a mass demonstration.
The road march is scheduled to commence from Dhaka on Friday with several rallies along the route.
The convoy will reach Chattogram on Saturday,聽聽 culminating in a protest rally in front of the Port Authority Building following a procession from the Barik Building intersection in the city at 3:00pm.
In a written statement, Nuruchchafa Bhuiyan, acting general secretary of the Chattogram district unit of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, said that the port鈥檚 New Mooring Container Terminal had already proved its efficiency through handling volumes beyond its capacity.
The former Awami League government initiated lease negotiations in 2024 with DP World, a company based in the UAE, for operating the terminal.
鈥楾he interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus is now trying to revive that anti-national deal in the name of attracting foreign investment,鈥� Bhuiyan said.
He added that as the state had already invested crores of taka in developing the NCT into a fully functional and modern terminal, there was no justification for further foreign involvement.
Addressing the proposed humanitarian corridor for Rakhine, Bhuiyan said that establishing such a corridor could drag Bangladesh into a geopolitical conflict.