Khaleda urges people to boycott AL

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Saturday urged people to boycott the ruling Awami League accusing the party of killing, repression and corruption. ‘Let us boycott the Awami League…The wind of change is now blowing through Bangladesh and we will bring about change for development,’ Khaleda said at a rally on Comilla Town Hall ground. Comilla chapter of the BNP-led alliance organised the rally with Comilla south district BNP president Rebya Chowdhury in the chair as a part of Khaleda’s countrywide mass contact programme. It was the alliance’s ninth rally after the January 5 elections, boycotted by all opposition parties, to drum up public support in favour demand for an early election under a non-party government. The BNP chief said that she was not carrying out movement to go to power but to save the country and urged people to join the movement. ‘Come and join the movement…I will join you in the streets…I will be on the frontline and we will see who open fire on us,’ Khaleda said. ‘Whenever I will call, you will join the programme to save the country ousting from this killer and repressive regime,’ she added.

Khaleda said that the country was placed under one man’s rule, not of one-party rule and the fall of Awami League was imminent. The BNP chief asked the government to arrange polls under a non-party neutral government to justify popularity. Khaleda refuted Sheikh Hasina’s recent comment that she [Khaleda] was escaping from courts and not facing trial. She said that the government was filing ‘false cases’ against BNP leaders and activists. She said that Hasina would have been convicted if she faced the cases filed against her by the interim regime. ‘You [Hasina] were accused in 15 cases. You committed corruption in purchasing Mig-29 and Frigate. You might have been convicted in these cases,’ she said. ‘Why did you withdraw the cases? Had you faced the trials, we would have observed how much courage you had,’ Khaleda said. She said that Hasina had sought interim regime’s pardon and fled the country. ‘They [interim regime] came to me, but I said, “You are illegal…I will not leave my country”,’ she said. The BNP chief said that the prime minister’s adviser who worked as chief coordinator of the Awami League in January 5 general elections had leaked how Awami League manipulated the elections. ‘After his remarks, HT Imam and the government should resign. They will have to quit power,’ she said, adding, ‘It has been proved that fair elections cannot be held under the Awami League.’ Khaleda iterated her demand for disbanding the Rapid Action Battalion as she said that the battalion had turned into a force of killing and disappearance. She demanded arrest of battalion official Colonel Zia, saying that he was behind the abduction and killings of seven people in Narayanganj. ‘If he is not arrested, killing and enforced disappearance will go on. He gets direction from the number one [prime minister] and her security adviser,’ the BNP chief said. She accused the police of repressing common people, killing and conducting enforced disappearance.

She said that the police were being involved in crimes regularly and the police personnel from a particular district were now considering themselves above the law. She urged the international community not to recruit the police and the battalion people for UN peace mission and not to give training to this force. ‘Do not give them training, they are killing own people,’ she said. Khaleda alleged that the Anti-Corruption Commission that had now turned into indemnity commission for Awami League’s corruption. ‘The only principle of this government is corruption…All the Awami League leaders including ministers and lawmakers are involved in corruption,’ she said, adding, ‘but they get clean chit from the commission.’ Thousands of people from Comilla and adjacent districts including Chandpur, Brahmanbaria, Feni and Narayanganj joined the rally with processions. They were carrying banners, festoons and posters depicting Khaleda Zia, Ziaur Rahman and Tarique Rahman. The rally was also addressed by alliance leaders including Jammat-e-Islami nayeb-e-amir Mujibur Rahman, Jatiya Party chairman Andaleev Rahman Partha, Islami Oikyo Jote chairman Abdul Latif Nezami, Kelafat Majlish chairman Mohammad Ishaq, acting BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, and BNP presidium members Moudud Ahmed, MK Anwar, Rafiqul Islam Mia and Mirza Abbas.

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