BNP followers along with people can topple govt: Fakhrul
BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Monday said he now strongly believes that the current regime can be ousted if their party men and the country’s people get united.
Speaking at a discussion, he also bemoaned that their party could not make its anti-government movement a success despite its prolonged efforts by turning the ‘grief’ into strength for lack of united efforts, reports UNB.
Sylhet Bibhag Sanghati Sammelani organised the discussion at the Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh, marking the 5th anniversary of the ‘enforced disappearance’ of former BNP MP M Ilias Ali.
Ilias Ali, BNP’s the then Sylhet divisional organising secretary, went missing along with his driver Ansar Ali on the midnight of April 17 in 2012. Since then, BNP has been blaming security agencies for his mysterious disappearance, an allegation denied by the government.
Narrating how Ilias was made disappeared by ‘law enforcers’, Fakhrul said it is a very shocking day for BNP. ‘We shouldn’t sit idle with our sorrow. We must turn our grief into our strength, but we’re failing repeatedly. We must find out the reason as to why we can’t topple this evil government which is totally alienated from people. We must forge a unity among people to defeat it.’
Referring to his recent visit to Netrakona to stand beside flood victims there, the BNP leader said, ‘Seeing people’s terrific sorrows and immense responses, I now believe if we can get united and unite our all national forces the current evil forces won’t be able to stay in power.’
The BNP secretary general urged BNP leaders and activists to take a strong vow to restore democracy, people’s rights and protect the country’s independence and sovereignty at any cost.
Fakhrul claimed that the statements of witnesses and video footage of the spot clearly suggest that the law enforcers picked Ilias Ali and his driver up. ‘But the government has been denying it.’
Not only Ilias, he said, but also over 500 BNP leaders and activists, including 50 in Dhaka alone, were made disappeared while thousands of them maimed and several lakhs implicated in ‘false’ cases.
Fakhrul suggested Ilias’ wife, who was present at the programme, and Sylhet Bibhag Sanghati Sammelani to take the issue to international right bodies to mount pressure on the government to trace Ilias. ‘We’ll provide you with all-out cooperation.’
Speaking at the programme, BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas said Awami League has introduced the politics of killing and enforced disappearance in the country to hang onto power and thus serve the purpose of a particular country.
He alleged that the government is trying to make BNP a leaderless party by killing its leaders and making them disappeared.
‘Awami League is unable to realise the fact that who are now suggesting it to make BNP leaderless will apply the tactic to make Awami League leaderless in the future. So, there’s still time to return to the right path,’ Abbas warned.’