Denouncing the government for what she said capturing upazila election centres, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Saturday night said they will definitely take to the streets in due time to unset the regime, no matter what.
“We’ll surely take to the streets no matter how much obstacles the government creates and how many bullets it shoots. We’ll be there on the streets in due time, and they won’t be able to resist us,” she said.
Khaleda came up with the remarks while the newly elected leaders of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) met her at her Gulshan office.
The new SCBA leaders, led by its president advocate Khandaker Mahbub Uddin Ahmed and its secretary Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokan, met the BNP chief following their victory in the March 12-13 polls. They greeted Khaleda presenting a bouquet.
The BNP-Jamaat-supported panel swept the election to the Supreme Court Bar Association, bagging 13 posts out of 14.
Addressing the function, Khaleda alleged the current ‘weak and illegal regime’ does not allow the opposition to hold their democratic programmes and carry out peaceful movement as it does not believe in democracy.
The former Prime Minister called upon all other political parties outside her party-led 19-party alliance to get united to rescue the country’s people from the hands of the current ‘repressive’ regime.
“There’s no rule of law, democracy, justice and legal government in the country. People are being tortured. People want to get rid of this regime as soon as possible. So, we all need to get united to rescue people. I call upon all other political parties to be united to take to the streets against this repressive, killer and illegal administration,” she said.
Describing the judiciary as the last resort for the oppressed people, Khaleda said where they will go if they do not get justice from the court.
She urged the lawyers to stand with legal aid beside the opposition leaders and activists implicated in ‘false’ cases.
Khaleda said, the present Awami League government cares little about the country’s people as they do not have any sympathy, affection and responsibility towards them. “But, people wonder seeing the government’s so much sympathy for another country,” she said apparently pointing at India.
Khaleda said, the government is giving India everything whatever it demands though Bangladesh is getting nothing from it. “Their (India) only demand that is left to entrain is handing over the country. Even the government is ready to give it if they ask for it. But we’ll never allow it to happen.”
Turning to the upazila polls, Khaleda said the government has taken revenge on the 19-party by manipulating the upazila polls for the victory of the BNP-Jamaat-backed panels in the Supreme Court Bar, Dhaka Bar and other district bar associations.
The BNP chief claimed that had the upazila polls been free and fair Awami League would have faced such a debacle that they would not have been able to show their faces.
She said, people have rejected Awami League in the farcical January 5 election by not going to the polling stations.
Mentioning that the current regime has no people’s mandate to govern the country, the former Prime Minister said Awami League is holding the office with the power of guns.
BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, standing committee members Moudud Ahmed, Jamiruddin Sircar, Rafiqul Islam Miah, Mirza Abbas, chairperson’s advisers Shahjahan Omar, Joynal Abedin and Mir Nasir were, among others, present.
