Dhaka, Bangladesh Global: After 49 days, hundreds of BNP leaders and workers gathered in front of their party’s central office at Nayapaltan for the first time, before bringing out a rally marking the Great Victory Day. From the rally, the party's first since violence between their activists and the police and AL activists on the opposite side foiled the party’s grand rally on October 28, the opposition leaders and supporters chanted various slogans against the planned January 7 election, calling it 'one-sided' and demanding cancellation of the polling schedule to hold a fair and inclusive election under a neutral government.
BNP Standing Committee member Nazrul Islam Khan said the Awami League government is going to stage a mockery in the name of national election on January 7. “The country was not liberated for holding such a joke of an election,” he said while speaking in front of the BNP’s Nayapaltan central office prior to leading out the colourful rally. The opposition followers brought out the rally from Nayapaltan around 2:30pm and it ended at Nayapaltan after parading different roads via Kakrail to Malibag amid the presence of huge number of law enforcers.
After the party’s foiled rally on October 28, most of the party leaders went into hiding in fear of arrest amid a crackdown of law enforcers. Over 20,000 BNP leaders and workers, including its secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, have been arrested since the last week of October. Through the BNP central office still remained closed, party leaders and workers started gathering in front of it since 11am in small processions.
BNP leaders and activists from the capital and its surrounding districts and upazilas participated in the rally under the banner of BNP and its associate bodies. Addressing the gathering prior to taking out the rally, Nazrul Islam Khan said the country’s people do not want to see such a lopsided election and they will not go to the polling stations to exercise their right to vote on January 7.
As people have no participation in the election, he said the ruling party has to field 'dummy candidates' from its own party. “The way candidates are being nominated, everyone knows who will be the MPs,” the BNP leader said. He alleged that the government has continued arresting and harassing BNP leaders and activists to hold a stage-managed election.
“Democratic rights have been taken away to play a game in the name of election without participation of the opposition parties,” Nazrul said. Earlier in the day, the party paid homage to the martyrs of the Liberation War in 1971, by placing wreaths at the National Mausoleum in Savar, marking the 52nd Victory Day.
BNP's standing committee member Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan together with party leaders and workers placed wreaths at the memorial around 10am. Talking to reporters there, Dr Moyeen said lakhs of people of the then East Pakistan shed their blood and sacrificed their lives for an independent Bangladesh, democracy and economic emancipation. “But Awami League has killed democracy prematurely, betraying the crores of people of this country. They have destroyed the economy of Bangladesh through extreme corruption,” he said.
After 52 years of independence, Moyeen said the 180 million people of Bangladesh have to ask the Awami League why it has established a one-party dictatorial government in Bangladesh by destroying the ideology of the Liberation War when it claims to be the pro-liberation war forces. Later, they also placed wreaths at the grave of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman at Sher-e-Banglanagar in the capital. The BNP leaders also offered a monajat seeking salvation of Zia's departed soul.
BNP standing committee members Nazrul Islam Khan, Selima Rahaman, Vice Chairman Dr AZM Zahid Hossain, Joint Secretary General Mahbubuddin Khokon were among others, present there. BNP's different units and associate bodies are also marking the day with various programs across the country. Earlier in the morning, they hoisted national and party flags atop the party offices marking Victory Day.
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