BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday said MPs from his party are ready to resign from the current parliament as their main goal is to restore democracy by ousting the Awami League government.

“We would like to straightly say that no election will be held in the country under Sheikh Hasina and without a caretaker government. Our only demand is the resignation of this regime.” He told a massive anti-government rally in Rangpur.

The BNP leader said the government must dissolve the parliament.

“Our MPs Harun, Rumeen and Zahid are ready to resign (from parliament) as per the directive of the party. The government must hand over power to a caretaker government which will form a new Election Commission and a fresh election will be held under it,” he said.

He said a national government will be formed after a credible election to repair the state, economy and politics that have been destroyed by the current government.

As part of the party’s planned rallies at division level, the Rangpur city unit BNP organised the programme on Rangpur Collector Eidgah ground.

Thousands of leaders and activists of the BNP and its associate bodies joined the rally, defying a transport strike.

An adequate number of police and other security officials have been deployed around the rally venue and at different points in the city to prevent any untoward incident.

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 and Jashore, and to ensure the freedom of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

On Saturday, Fakhrul saluted the people of Rangpur for making the rally a success after enduring untold sufferings and working hard for three days due to obstacles caused by a 36-hour transport strike.

He questioned why the government attempts to obstruct BNP’s rallies and guns down opposition activists and attacks them if it is not afraid of BNP.

“A party and one person (PM Sheikh Hasina) have ruined the entire country and repressed and suppressed us for the last 15 years…They’ve chewed up the economy and destroyed it. They’re now trying to eat up the entire Bangladesh,” Fakhrul said.

He said the resignation of the current government is their only demand as it has destroyed the nation's all achievements. "Wherever you look at, you’ll see their theft. They’re stealing from the construction work on roads and bridges and even from the construction work on building houses for our poor people. They’re eating up everything, not sparing anything,” the BNP leader alleged.

Referring to the Prime Minister’s warning about a possible famine next year, the BNP leader said where the country’s people would go when she talks about a famine. “Why will the country face a famine? If the country is hit by the famine, Sheikh Hasina and her government will be held responsible for it.”

Fakhrul recalled that the country's people faced famine and died from starving in 1974 during the rule of Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

He said the government has pushed the country towards a serious economic crisis though it has long been talking about tuning Bangladesh into a middle-income and rich country.

The BNP leader said people are already hit hard by skyrocketing prices of daily essentials.

He said the prime minister has been asking people to have patience, to eat less and to be frugal users of power. “But we see you’re eating chital fish, repeatedly going abroad and living a cosy life in the air-conditioned house. But our common people are not getting power.”

The BNP leader said the Prime Minister as part of a fresh plot has started talking about militancy and arson attacks. “Your weapon has become blunt; it won’t work anymore. Your true face has been unmasked before the people of the entire world.”

He said the country’s people will resist all sorts of repressive acts and those attacks people with guns, sticks and hockey sticks and ensure the fall of the autocratic regime.

“It’s time to wake up. People of this country will wake up and fight one more time to free the country (from the grasp of AL),” Fakhrul warned.

Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury said Hasina’s government will be removed before the famine hits the country.

He said the country’s economy is now under serious stress because of widespread corruption and plundering by the ruling party leaders.

Urging the government to quit in a bid to protect the country, Khosru said Awami League has created a political crisis in the country by indulging in vote robbery. “This crisis will be resolved through the removal of the Awami League from power.”

BNP standing committee members Selima Rahman, and Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, BNP vice chairman AZM Zahid Hossain, joint secretary general Harunur Rashid and organising secretary Asadul Habib Dulu, among others, spoke at the programme.

The BNP activists started gathering at the rally venue from Friday afternoon and many of them stayed overnight there.

Saturday’s rally was the fourth one by the BNP at the divisional level as the first one was held in Chattogram the second one in Mymensingh and the third in Khulna.

To make the rally a success, BNP men from different districts, including Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha, Thakurgaon, Panchagarh, and Dinajpur, came to Rangpur in various ways including by trains, motorbikes, auto-rickshaws, and human haulers amid an allegation of using the transport owners and workers by Awami League to enforce the strike in the region.

But the ruling party in Rangpur has denied any involvement with the transport strike.

Rangpur District Motor Owners' Association has enforced the transport strike from 6am Friday to 6pm Saturday, demanding a ban on illegal vehicles, including three-wheelers, on the highway and an end to "administrative harassment.”