BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday alleged the government is plotting to cross the hurdles of the next election easily by promptly jailing senior leaders of their party in ‘false’ cases and making them unfit for polls like its Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

Speaking at a huge public rally here, he also equivocally said no election will be held in Bangladesh until Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina steps down by handing over power to a non-party caretaker government.

“This regime has not kept anything unharmed. We don’t now get justice. They file false, fabricated and fictitious cases against us and convict us. Our all senior leaders have been facing 10-60 cases,” the BNP leader said.

Read more: Amid relative ease, BNP’s 8th divisional rally begins in Cumilla

Fakhrul said the government is now trying to hasten the trial process of the ‘false’ cases filed against the BNP leaders. "This means that they (govt) want to easily overcome the hurdles of election by throwing those of us now leading the movement in jail the way our leader Khaleda Zia was jailed by convicting her in false cases.”

He, however, warned that the  people will not let the government this time to hold any more lopsided national elections. 

As part of BNP’s divisional programme, the party’s Cumilla city unit arranged the rally on Cumilla Town Hall ground.

Thousands of leaders and activists of BNP and its associate bodies joined the rally in Cumilla amid relative ease with no transport strike this time.

People no longer board boat

Fakhrul said the’ illegal’ prime minister usurped power by holding two elections in 2014 and 2018 under her supervision by force.

The BNP leader said Hasina held a rally in Jashore on Thursday availing of all the state facilities and using the state machinery. “In that rally, she announced to hold the election again (under her) and urged people to vote for boat (AL’s) election symbol…but the people of entire Bangladesh are now singing they would not have boarded the boat had they known the consequences earlier.  “So, quit power with dignity before time runs out fast as people now want you to go.”

 Fakhrul bemoaned that people have to carry out a movement and sacrifice lives even after 50 years of independence for establishing their voting rights.

AL candidates to lose security money

The BNP leader said the government has again been resorting to various tricks to hold a stage-managed election using the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) under it the since the Awami League candidates will lose their security money if a credible election is held under a neutral administration.

The BNP leader said the government has been arresting BNP leaders and activists and implicating them in fictitious cases to suppress the party and its programmes. “This is a shameless regime. Their skin is as thick as a rhinoceros. “

Rally to be held in Dhaka on December 10

Fakhrul alleged that the government has started arresting the BNP leaders and activists and raiding their houses in the capital to stop the party’s December-10 rally. “You could not halt our rally anywhere including in Cumilla. You also won’t be able to do it in Dhaka on December 10.”

Read more: BNP's Cumilla rally set to take place amid relative ease

Though the ruling party leaders made various comments about not allowing BNP to hold the rally in Dhaka city, Fakhrul said they are now suggesting BNP arrange the programme at Suhrawardy Udyan. “Come forward a few more steps and the rally will be held at Nayapaltan.”

He said they have been in a movement to restore democracy and the voting and other rights of people in a peaceful manner but the government is trying to divert it in a different direction.

The BNP leader said the people of the entire country have got fed with the government’s misrule and failure to run the state. “People now want to get rid of the grasp of Awami League. That’s why we’ve waged a movement to oust this regime.”

People won’t accept Gomoti as division's name  

BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said the common people are joining BNP’s rallies as they are angry at the government since it has destroyed democracy, snatched their rights and put them in serious trouble with its misrule and widespread plundering.

He alleged that the government has been using the law enforcers as its weapons to hang onto power by repressing and suppressing people.

Mosharraf, also a son of Cumilla, opposed the government’s move to name the Cumilla division as Gomoti division. “Cumilla is a historic name and people will not accept if the division is named Gomoti division. It has to be named as Cumill division.”

During his speech, Fakhrul also said the division should be named as Cumilla, not Gomoti.

Another BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas said their party’s eight divisional rallies have proved the country’s people are not with the Awami League government.

BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan thanked the people of Cumilla for making the rally a success with their spontaneous participation in it braving various obstructions, repressive acts and threats.

Though no transport strike was imposed in Cumilla unlike such programmes in other divisions, he said the ruling party repressed and harassed their party followers so that they cannot join the rally. “They also killed our brother Nayan Miah n Brahmanbaria over the rally. Our eight leaders and activists have so far been killed in the current movement. We won’t let their sacrifices go in vain as we’ll oust this regime through a movement.”

The father of Nayon, who was killed recently in police firing while distributing leaflets for drumming public support for the rally, also spoke at the programme seeking the punishment of those police personnel involved in the murder of his son.

Sons of BNP Cumilla leaders Humayun Kabir Parvez and Saiful Islam Hiru who have been subjected to enforced disappearance also addressed the rally seeking the government’s steps to ensure the safe return of their dear ones.

 The rally venue was teeming with the opposition leaders and activists since morning as they gathered there from the different upazilas of Cumilla and its adjoining districts, including Brahmanbaria and Chandpur.

Unlike the party’s previous such rallies in other divisions, BNP leaders and followers faced fewer hassles in Cumilla to join the programme as no transport strike has been enforced here.

The rally in Cumilla was the 8th by the BNP at the divisional level after 7 others were held in Chattogram, Mymensingh, Khulna, Rangpur, Barishal, Faridpur and Sylhet.

The organisers said the rally was meant to denounce the price hike of daily essentials and fuels, the death of five party men in previous police action in Bhola, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Brahmanbaria and Jashore to ensure the freedom of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.