Movement to continue till victory: Rizvi

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Friday said despite the arrests of a number of leaders, their party’s one-point movement to topple the government would continue ‍‍`until victory is achieved‍‍`.

“This movement will continue till victory…our 48-hour blockade from Sunday morning will be observed peacefully,” he said.

Speaking at a virtual press briefing, the BNP leader also urged the leaders and workers of BNP and like-minded opposition parties not to respond to any provocation by the government while observing the blockade.

He said they have been on a movement to restore the voting rights of the people so that they can elect the candidate of their choice without any fear.

“This is an ideal movement for realising people’s justified demands… all who are in favour of democracy and freedom, and against an autocratic regime will support this democratic movement and remain with it,” the BNP leader said.

Rizvi said the final session of the 11th parliament, that was established through vote-rigging deep in the night, that too on the eve of an election, was prorogued on Thursday.

He said the MPs in this parliament only spread lies and propaganda against BNP, its founder Ziaur Rahman, and his family members to gain the political favour of Awami League.

“They did nothing good for the common people,” Rizvi claimed.

"This parliament of 272 working days became a den of Awami League gossiping.  Around 165 bills have been passed by this illegal parliament in the last five years and almost all of them are anti-people. The illegal laws that were passed by this illegal parliament will be thrown into the Buriganga (River) by MPs who will be elected with people’s votes through free and fair elections under a caretaker government,” the BNP leader said.

He also complained that a huge amount of money had been wasted in running the affairs of the 11th Parliament.

Rizvi alleged that the ruling party is once again trying to hang onto power through a lopsided election.

“The subservient Election Commission, police, and administration are there in the field with all their strengths. We‍‍`re getting news from all over the country that Sheikh Hasina and her government have embarked on a new dirty mission to keep BNP out of the elections using the subservient Awami administration.”

He said the Awami League is targeting around 2 crore beneficiaries and card holders availing social safety net programmes ahead of the election.

“For the past few days, Awami League MPs and leaders have been holding meetings with beneficiaries who have received direct and indirect benefits under the social safety net projects from various departments of the government in every upazila of every constituency. The DCs, SPs, UNOs, and OCs are joining the meetings. The purpose of these gatherings is to order people to vote for ‍‍`boat‍‍` in the upcoming parliamentary election.”

The boat is ruling AL‍‍`s electoral symbol.

Rizvi said people are being given threats that the cards they use for availing these benefits will be cancelled, if they do not go to the polling stations during the next polls.

"Sheikh Hasina has taken this terrible trick to show foreigners the satisfactory voter turnout in the polling stations".

Rizvi said more than 292 BNP leaders and activists were arrested across the country in the space of just 24 hours till 4:30pm Friday.