Stating that an awful situation has been prevailing in the country, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Thursday urged the democratic political forces to forge a greater unity to oust the Awami League government.

"Let's unite. From this programme, I would like to call upon all of our political parties and democratic forces to forge a unity and wage a larger movement in the greater interest of the country,” he said.

The BNP leader made the call at a discussion at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh. BNP’s national committee on celebrating the golden jubilee of the country’s independence arranged the programme.

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He said people forged a strong unity and fought for the country’s independence in 1971 to build a democratic country and establish the rights of people.  “Time has come again now to build a greater unity to get back our dreamed state and the emancipation of our people. With that unity, we’ll defeat this horrible fascist government.”

Fakhrul also slammed the government for what he said were repressive acts and harassment of the opposition leaders and activists in ‘false’ cases.

“Our leader Begum Khaleda Zia is still under house arrest…there’re 35 lakh false cases against us. What’s the difference between them (govt) and the Pakistani occupation forces? They (Pakistanis) also killed our people and the current regime is also killing people and making them disappeared in the same way,” he observed.

The BNP leader also said the country’s people are now going through serious sufferings due to the soaring prices of daily essentials.

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“A terrible situation has been created in the country with the skyrocketing prices of essentials and due to the failure of the government. No one is now safe in the country while people are not getting justice. We must all unite to get rid of this situation,” he said.

Fakhrul alleged that the government destroyed the spirit of the Liberation War by ‘usurping’ power and obliterating democracy.

“Awami League has been distorting the history of the Liberation War in a planned way. They’re also denying the contributions of the freedom fighters,” he alleged.