No option to go back from movement: Mirza Fakhrul

Online Desk
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party said on Monday that it had no option but to continue the ongoing movement to oust the ruling Awami League.

‘We have no way to go back, as we have suffered a lot,’ BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, addressing a youth rally in front of the BNP Naya Paltan central office.

Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal, the youth front of the BNP, organised the youth rally to realise the opposition’s one-point demand for the resignation of the ruling Awami League and the release of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia.

Several thousand youths from different parts of the country started joining the rally in the morning.

Roads adjacent to the BNP office were filled with Juba Dal leaders and activists by the time the rally began in the afternoon, leading city dwellers to suffer from the resulting traffic congestion.

Fakhrul said that the government wants to stay in power by using the state machinery.

‘They are using the administration to repress the opposition. The anti-government agitators are being punished in false cases using the courts,’ he said.

Fakhrul alleged that the government was forcing members of the administration to stand against the people despite their unwillingness.

‘The judges who are giving sentences in false cases also have to answer to the people,’ he said.

He said that the ruling government had not only stolen votes but also the constitution.

‘The present government is constitutionally illegal, and it should resign if elections are to be held according to the constitution,’ he observed.

Referring to the youth rally as historical, Fakhrul said that it had doubled the hopes of the common people.

‘This rally will undoubtedly be able to play a very strong role in the final movement that is going to start in the next few days,’ he said.

‘Our only goal now is to take the people with us through the movement and remove this government,’ he said.

Addressing the rally, BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas said that the government was afraid of BNP leaders and activists; that’s why it had filed cases against 43 lakh leaders and activists.

‘If these 43 lakh leaders and activists come to Dhaka, the law, justice, nothing else will survive,’ he said.

Under the chairmanship of Juba Dal president Sultan Salah Uddin Tuku, the programme was moderated by the organisation’s acting general secretary, Shafiqul Islam Milton.

BNP standing committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, vice-chairman Barkat Ullah Bulu, BNP chairperson’s advisory council member Abdus Salam, and joint secretary general Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal spoke, among others, at the rally.