UNB, Brahmanbaria :
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Tuesday trashed reports that the 20-party alliance led by her party is about to split.
Addressing a big public rally here Khaleda said the alliance remained united and it would grow stronger.
“The patriotic forces will not join hands with the collaborators and traitors,” she told the cheering crowd at Niaz Mohammad High School Ground in Brahmanbaria.
Khaleda alleged that the government is framing a case to arrest her. “I’m not afraid of my being arrested. They can’t intimidate me with the threat to send me to jail,” she said.
Khaleda said “The way Awami League is trying to (arrest) me, I want to say I have my party and people. So you (party men) will remain united and work together.”
She also directed her leaders and activists to remain united and continue the movement in case she is arrested and sent to jail.
Khaleda said, the leaders of the ruling party, including the Prime Minister, should instead be ready with their passports and visas to flee the country to escape what she said public wrath.
The local unit of BNP-led 20-party alliance organized the rally as part of its ongoing campaign to mobilize public support in favour of a fresh election under a non-party administration.
Khaleda urged all people to get united to save the country from the hands of what she said the repressive and autocratic regime. “Their hands of the traitors are tainted with the blood of the people. People will not forgive Hasina,” she said.
Khaleda denounced the 16th amendment to the constitution as a move by the government to intimidate the Supreme Court judges so that they deliver verdicts against the opposition leaders.
“Now Sheikh Hasina will intimidate the judges to remove them through two-third majority of the illegal parliament if they don’t punish the opposition politicians,” she said.
Referring to Monday’s nationwide hartal against the 16th amendment to the constitution, Khaleda said, “We will declare even harsher programmes if the government does not scrap it immediately.”
Khaleda also said, Awami League leaders will leave the country when crisis will prevail as they plundered thousands of crores of taka and siphoned off the money abroad. The former premier criticized the government for its alleged misrule and warned that the government has to pay for the misdeeds.
Khaleda demanded that the Rapid Action Battalion top official Colonel Ziaul Ahsan be arrested immediately for his alleged “involvement in the current incidents of killings across the country.”
“The real truth about the seven murders in Narayanganj will be known if he is interrogated. The premier had her hands in this incident. I don’t understand how can the RAB chief still hold his position in the elite force?,” she wondered.
Renewing her demand for disbandment of the RAB, the BNP chairperson said, “We have formed RAB in order to prevent terrorism in the country. But the present government is using the force to serve its political interests. The Awami League government has used RAB for killing 310 leaders and activists of our alliance. They also abducted some 56 members of the coalition.”
Regarding the government’s claim that electricity generation in the country is 10500 MW, the BNP chief said, “This information is totally false. The truth is that the production capacity is only 6500 mw at present.” About 200 arches were erected along 15-kilometer roads from Ashuganj to the rally venue to welcome Khaleda.
This was her fourth visit outside the capital after January 5 election that BNP-led alliance boycotted. Party leaders and activists carrying out large posters, festoons and portraits of party founder Ziaur Rahman, Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman thronged the venue.
Her previous post-election visits took her to Rajbari, Munshiganj and Dinajpur.
