They also voiced frustration over the thin presence of party leaders and activists at the programme.
BNP arranged the discussion programme at the Institution of Engineers’, Bangladesh, marking the Shaheed Day and International Mother Language Day.
As BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed was addressing the programme, a party junior leader stoop up saying, “Please talk about Khaleda Zia’s release”.
“Tell us when and how she’ll be freed. Why’s the hall room unfilled here?” the BNP leader said amid the slogans of party men.
At one stage, Moudud said, “We’ll surely come up with programme, but you’ll have to have patience.”
The BNP leader also said the movement is the only way to free Khaleda from jail. “Khaleda Zia won’t be freed through a legal battle. Her release will be our only agenda.”
At the last stage of the discussion, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam came to speak at the programme.
At one stage, party activists started shouting demanding action programmes to have Khaleda freed from jail.
In reply, Fakhrul said the programmes cannot be announced whimsically. “You’ll have to observe the programmes if we announce those.”
Dissatisfied with his reply, the party activist again started shouting saying either announce programmes or dissolve the party committee.
To pacify the aggrieved party men, Fakhrul urged them not to shout in the hall room and sit down.
As the situation turned normal, the BNP secretary general said, “I can realise your pain and anger. But you must keep it in mind that it’s not easy to succeed in a struggle of democratic forces against fascism. Why’re you thinking you’ve failed? You’ve neither failed nor defeated.”
He said BNP leaders and activists became successful in the December-30 polls as it has now exposed to people and the global community that Awami League is a fascist force though it talks about democracy.