BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir today claimed that Awami League is against the caretaker government system as the party knows it will not even get 10 seats if the next national election is held under such an administration.

Speaking at the rally in Khulna city, Fakhrul also claimed that the government is trying to hold another election as done in 2014 and 2018 — to cling to power without people’s votes.

“People won’t accept any other system except the caretaker government (to oversee the next polls). Why don’t you want to accept this? Because you know that you won’t have any existence and you won’t even get 10 seats if the election is held under a caretaker government,” Fakhrul said.

Also read: Thousands join as BNP’s Khulna rally starts earlier than scheduled

He said it was Awami League that enforced hartal for 173 days for the introduction of the caretaker government, but the party itself annulled the system after assuming office to cling to power.

As part of the party’s planned divisional programmes, Khulna city unit BNP arranged the rally on the Sonali Bank premises in the city. The rally spread to a radius of two km.

The BNP leader said no fair and credible election can be held without a caretaker government. “That’s why Sheikh Hasina must go. This regime has destroyed all the achievements of the country.”

Also read: BNP activists say ‘obstructed’ from joining rally, clash with police at Khulna Station

He also said BNP has no alternative to continuing the movement to establish a government of the people by ousting the ‘authoritarian’ regime.

As the government had looted huge money from the power sector, the country has been facing serious load shedding, said Fakhrul. “It has now proved that the government did not develop the country. That’s why they now fear of facing a famine like 1974.”

He said Awami League wants to retain power using the state machinery and flexing muscles. “But they won’t be able to do that. They couldn’t not prevent you from joining this rally. So, they will no longer be able to stay in power with suppressive acts.”

The BNP leader urged the youth to come forward to restore democracy and people’s voting rights.

Slamming the government for its efforts to block their peaceful programmes, he said now the international community also knows that Awami Leagues is a terrorist party.

He recalled that five leaders of their party and its associate bodies who took bullets in their chest in the recent movement only to free the country from misrule and restore democracy.

At one stage of delivering speech Fakhrul fell Ill and continued his speech sitting in a chair. 

Fakhrul termed the rally a historic one and congratulated the people of Khulna for successfully holding the programme overcoming the adverse situation. “You have tuned impossible into a possible. People can’t be superseded with state machinery. It’s proved once again through the rally.”

He said their party’s many leaders and activists were injured in attacks by the ruling party activists in different areas while a man who was pushed into water from a trawler on way to Khulna remained missing.

BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain alleged that the the government enforced an “undeclared hartal”, disconnecting Khulna from other parts of the country over the last two days, to thwart the rally out of fear of a mass wave of people.

Another BNP standing committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy claimed that around 200 BNP leaders and activists were arrested by police centring the rally while police raided the houses of many opposition activists.

Though vehicle movement, except trains, practically remained halted between Khulna and the rest of the country since Friday morning, BNP activists from 10 districts reached the venue overcoming obstacles.

An adequate number of police and other security officials were deployed around the rally venue and at different points of 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.

Though the ruling party activists took position in different entry points with sticks and sharp weapons since morning, the rally ended peacefully.

Talking to UNB, some BNP activists who joined the rally expressed their apprehensions that they may come under attacks by the ruling party activists on their way back home from the rally.

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

Similar rallies have been planned in other divisional headquarters.