Bangladesh’s people are deprived of democracy, voting rights: Mirza Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has alleged that the democracy-loving people of Bangladesh are deprived of their minimum basic rights.

“But, our movement will continue unless and until the democracy is restored in Bangladesh and people get their voting rights back,” he said while speaking as the chief guest at a workers’ rally organised by the party’s labour front Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal in front of the BNP central office at Naya Paltan in the capital on Wednesday (May 1).

The rally was organised in observance of the May Day.

Mirza Fakhrul urged people from all walks of life, including all political parties and labour organisations, to join a united movement to restore people’s rights to vote.

“It’s not only BNP’s struggle, rather it’s struggle for survival of the country’s people,” he said. adding that “we have made great sacrifices to get our rights back and we will have to be readied to make more sacrifices.”

The BNP leader said that the countrymen are observing the May Day at a time when Bangladesh has been completely devastated in the hands of monsters. “Thousands of our leaders and workers have been sentenced on various terms.”

“Some 6 million opposition leaders and activists are facing political cases, their business entities are attacked and shops are looted,” he said, adding, “Now, it’s not the time to stay at home.”

He said that they would restore the people’s voting rights through united movement and struggle.

The government destroyed all democratic institutions, the BNP secretary general said, adding that it took control of judiciary, administration and media.

“The government want to establish one-party rule not through making a law in the parliament but by stanching the people’s rights and freedom of speech,” he said.

Hundreds of leaders and activists of the BNP and its associate bodies joined the rally ignoring the scorching heat.

Many leaders and activists took shelter in shadows to save themselves from the heat of the sun.

Stating that the BNP will rise out from the ashes like Phoenix bird, Fakhrul said that the party could not be destroyed.

The BNP leader criticised the prime minister and ruling Awami League president Sheikh Hasina for her remarks that all ultra-rights and ultra-lefts became united to oust the government.

“Today, everyone in the country can see that their rights and freedom of speech have been snatched, but the prime minister have said she does not know what their crimes are,” Fakhrul said.

“I say that their crime is that they have snatched people’s voting rights and are running the country through dummy elections,” he said, adding that the government made the country economically empty through looting.

He said that the people across the country were now deprived of their minimum rights.

BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas said that people would have no freedom until the government was ousted.

“The ruling people are saying that the BNP’s movement is not successful, but the people have seen how they have repressed the movement,” he added.

Chaired by Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal president Anwar Hossain, BNP standing committee member Abdul Moyeen Khan and its senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, among others, addressed the rally.

Following the rally, they brought out a colourful procession that began from in front of Naya Paltan office, marched Bijaynagar, Dainik Bangla, Fakirapool crossing, Aramabagh and ended at Naya Paltan.