BNP observes 43rd founding anniversary

BNP yesterday observed its 43rd founding anniversary.

Marking the day, party's secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and other senior leaders -- including Mirza Abbas, Nazrul Islam Khan and Amanullah Aman -- placed floral wreaths at the party founder Ziaur Rahman's grave in the capital's Chandrima Udyan.

Speaking with journalists there, Fakhrul said they will wage movement against the present "undemocratic" government to restore democracy in the country.

"False cases have been filed against 35 lakh people, more than 500 party leaders and activists have been abducted and more than a thousand were killed. Even after that the party is still on strong footing," Fakhrul said.

He said after the assassination of Ziaur Rahman, all thought that the party will cease to exist but his successor Khaleda Zia fought against autocratic regime and established democracy in the country.

"This government came to power illegally and sent our leader to jail in false cases," he said.

He also alleged that party leaders and activists were barred from coming to Zia's graveyard. "It is nothing but fascism."

When asked about the ruling party leaders' statements that Ziaur Rahman's body is not in the graveyard, Fakhrul said it is tough to answer such questions as they have no merit.

The party was founded on September 1, 1978, by late president Ziaur Rahman with a 19-point programme designed to build a "self-reliant" Bangladesh.

Since then, it formed government four times -- once under the leadership of its founder Ziaur Rahman and thrice under the leadership of his widow Khaleda Zia -- and was in opposition twice. It boycotted the January 5, 2014 election but participated in the 2018 election with Khaleda in jail and got only five seats.

Khaleda landed in jail on February 8, 2017 after being sentenced to five years' imprisonment by a special court in

Dhaka in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case. On October 30 the following year, the High Court raised her punishment to 10 years after dismissing her appeal in the case.

The former prime minister was convicted by another special court in Dhaka in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case on October 29, 2018. She was sentenced to seven years' rigorous imprisonment by the court.

She was released from custody for six months on March 25 last year, just a day before the government announced a general holiday to contain Covid-19 transmission.