BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Advocate Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Saturday alleged that the people of Bangladesh are being systematically denied their voting rights as happened during the dictatorship.

Speaking at an event in Belkuchi, Sirajganj, where BNP distributed Eid relief among the destitute, Rizvi said, “Just as under past autocratic regimes, people today are being kept away from voting.”

He recalled Bangladesh’s history of student-led movements for democracy, saying, “Student-people movements had overthrown dictators before through struggles to protect democracy.”

Rizvi emphasised that political reforms should be a continuous process driven by an elected government in parliament.

He alleged that the SP and OC of Comilla are now acting at the behest of an influential advisor to the interim government.

Rizvi claimed that the leaders of BNP, Jubo Dal, and Chhatra Dal are being arrested and harassed ahead of Eid.

“This government claims to be neutral, yet under its orders, BNP leaders and activists are being arrested and sent to prison,” the BNP leader said.

Criticising former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, he alleged that she fled the country out of fear during the Moinuddin-Fakhruddin administration and after 1975.

“If you (Hasina) were truly courageous, you would have returned to the country immediately after your family was assassinated. Instead, you only returned when you were assured of safety,” he claimed.

Interim govt advisers trying to divide anti-fascist movement: Rizvi

Rizvi also alleged that Hasina had negotiated with the Moinuddin-Fakhruddin administration to remove BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia from the country, but the plan failed. “Begum Zia’s leadership emerged from the grassroots, and she has never abandoned people or the country. Despite enduring false cases, imprisonment and repression by the Awami League government, she continues to fight for democracy,” he added.

During the programme, Rizvi handed over donation cheques on behalf of BNP to two martyred families of Belkuchi.

Under the direction of BNP’s Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman, Eid relief was distributed among 5,000 destitute people.

BNP’s Rajshahi Divisional Joint Organising Secretary Amirul Islam Khan Alim, former Belkuchi Upazila BNP President Jamal Bhuiyan, and former convener Nurul Islam Golam were among those present at the event.