"Democracy has been destroyed while an economy of plundering has now been established in the country," said BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

Speaking at a virtual discussion, he said, "When the coronavirus is changing the entire world, we’re observing with very disappointment that government-backed businesspeople have made an arrangement for plundering over the vaccine.”

BNP arranged the programme commemorating the formation of an army-backed caretaker government on January 11, 2007.

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Fakhrul said they want to stop plundering, revive the economy and destroy the one-party system of governance in Bangladesh by establishing a multiparty democracy. “We want to ensure food, clothing and shelter for the common people in true sense and establish people’s freedom of speech.”

He also said they want to transform Bangladesh into a welfare state as dreamt by their party founder Ziaur Rahman.

Fakhrul said they are working to unite people for the ‘restoration’ of democracy by defeating the current regime through a movement.

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About the 1/11 political changeover in 2007, he said it was not an isolated incident. “The takeover of power on January 11, 2007 was part of local and foreign conspiracies to eliminate the truly patriotic and democratic forces of Bangladesh.”

The BNP leader alleged that the 1/11 regime illegally captured power by ousting a constitutional and democratic government. “Later, those who came to power in connivance with them (1/11 regime) put the country’s independence at stake and destroyed democracy and people’s hopes and aspirations in a planned way.”

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Ever since the independence of Bangladesh, he said, there has always been an attempt from a special quarter to keep the country under its control.

Stating that democracy is the soul of Bangladesh, the BNP leader said it has been deliberately destroyed by that quarter through the 1/11 incident. “People’s rights have now been snatched by establishing the one-party rule. People have never wanted to see this Bangladesh.”