BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has called on the party leaders and activists to wage mass movements against the ‘autocrat regime’ to free its incarcerated chief Khaleda Zia.
He made the call in front of the party headquarters on Monday (Sept 2) before inaugurating the rally staged on the occasion of BNP’s 41st founding anniversary.
“We will surely free Khaleda Zia and democracy through movements. We will be victorious through peaceful movements,” he said.
“The government thinks that it can restrain the movements for democracy by imprisoning Khaleda Zia and dumping lawsuits against nearly 2.6 million of our activists,” he added.
Fakhrul said that the sheer presence of so many activists at the rally shows that no matter what the government does, it cannot impede this movement.
Alleging that the ruling Awami League wants to once again establish Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (BaKSAL) in the country, Fakhrul added, “We’ll never let this happen.”
“They have hiked up gas and electricity prices and recently a newspaper published a report saying that they have laundered off Tk 270 million,” the senior BNP politician claimed and added that the ruling party was destroying all forms of democracy in the country.

A three-time premier, Khaleda is now serving a 17-year jail term for her involvement in two separate graft cases.

She has been serving time since Feb 8 last year when a special court sentenced her to five years in prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

Her sentence was later extended to 10 years by the High Court. She was also convicted in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case and handed a seven-year term.