The leaders of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the BNP, have cleaned the premises of Ziaur Rahman's grave in the capital’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar. Around 30 JCD leaders, led by the organisation’s joint general secretary, Raju Ahmed, conducted the cleanliness drive on Saturday morning. Raju said the grave of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman had been neglected and left unprotected during what he termed the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina. He also said once visitors had faced obstacles while trying to pay their respects to Zia and offer fateha on the grave premises. The JCD leader mentioned that they took the initiative to clean the premises of Zia's grave out of a sense of organisational responsibility. He emphasised their commitment to upholding the ideals of the late President Ziaur Rahman and working towards nation-building under the leadership of BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Thursday termed absurd the Prime Minister’s remark that Ziaur Rahman’s body is not there at Chandrima Udyan graveyard, saying that  it has exposed her political 'vengeance'. “The President of Awami League, who declared herself the Prime Minister through late-night voting, has once again spitted venom against Ziaur Rahman and talked about his grave and role in the Liberation War. It’s a ridiculous statement,” he said Speaking at a virtual discussion, he also said it is a truth like the daylight that Zia fought in the battlefield and led the war in 1971. “Lakhs of people in the country cried for him (Zia) on the day he was assassinated and joined his janaza on Manik Mia Avenue, exhibiting his immense popularity,” the BNP leader said. Read: Corruption amid pandemic making life miserable: BNP Earlier in the day, the Prime minister said “BNP engaged in fights at Chandrima Udyan. Doesn't the BNP know that there's no grave or body of Zia, or Zia is not there? They know it very well! If so, why do they stage the drama? Khaleda Zia is also aware of it.” While addressing a programme virtually from her official residence Ganobhaban, Sheikh Hasina also said whether Khaleda Zia or Tarique Zia could claim that they saw Zia’s body in the box (which was brought from Chattogram) as a bullet-hit body can easily be recognised. “No one saw it as there was no body (of Zia) in the box,” she said.   Fakhrul accused Awami League of committing an act of treason by violating the country’s constitution. “They’ve killed democracy and snatched voting rights of people, turning Bangladesh into a vassal state.” He said Bangladeshi nationalism and the nation’s existence will be at stake if Awami League stays in power for a long time. READ: Bid to implicate Zia in Bangabandhu killing a political vengeance: Fakhrul Earlier, while inaugurating BNP’s Corona Help  Centre  at Dhaka-10 constituency, Fakhrul called upon the party leaders and activists for taking preparations for a tough movement to oust the current government. “If we can’t remove Awami League from power, we won’t be able to free Khaleda Zia and get rid of thousands of false cases. So, we must take to the streets and defeat this regime,” he said. Fakhrul said BNP has no other option but to put up a strong resistance against the current government to ‘restore’ democracy and people’s voting and all other rights. “The youth must wake up and lead the movement for bringing a change in power demonstrating their courage.”