‘No Return Before Toppling AL Regime’ Khaleda Zia declares similar programmes for Northern Bangladesh

Opposition leader at the house and BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, in a bid to begin movement to topple the Awami League regime, has reiterated that the upcoming participatory election has to be held under a caretaker government.



She said, the Bangladeshis with BNP have taken streets to protest the inefficient government’s gross inaction throughout their tenure, and they will leave streets only after the regime is toppled.



Begum Khaleda Zia spoke at the landmark party gathering in Sylhet on Tuesday, the other end of the massive road march comprising hundreds of thousands of party workers and supporters that was set off on Monday from Dhaka.



The gathering took place at the Alia Madrasa ground in Sylhet metropolitan city. Khaleda Zia’s speech began after the Asr prayers as the former PM got on the stage after visiting the holy tombs of Hazrat Shahjalal (R) and Hazrat Shahparan (R).





Caretaker government a must, so is AL regime’s end



Begum Zia again reiterated that the next election, if to be participatory, has to be held under a caretaker government.


Khaleda Zia arrested in 2007
Begum Khaleda Zia, arrested during the controversial 1/11 government, ruled out the Awami League claims that it was a caretaker government. She says the regime was illegal and unconstitutional, thus cannot be an excuse to abolish the required concept.
Photo: Farzana Godhuly

“The next election indeed will be held under the caretaker government and Awami League will be forced by the public to join it unconditionally”, she said.



Earlier on Monday while speaking to a number of street gatherings on her way to Sylhet, she said that the Bangladeshis never believe the lame excuses of the government that caretaker government system is illegal.



“Moeenuddin and Fakhruddin’s government what Awami League uses as an excuse to abolish the concept, was not even a legal or a constitutional caretaker government. It was an illegal government”, she said.



She added, “The concept of caretaker government is still needed. People know that and they in fact have no interest in the papers signed by Awami League’s pet justices”.





Awami League means graft, nepotism and dirty politics



Begum Khaleda Zia put focus on the recently heightening political murders and opposition activists’ going missing from across the country.



She iterated, “The politics of murder and abduction heightens only when Awami League is in power.”



Criticizing government moves to battle the power crisis, Begum Zia said the government itself opened avenues for rampant grafts and nepotism.



“They included indemnity in their power generation policy, which is only meant to bar the law from questioning their rampant corruption in the sector”, she said.



“Why the share market always goes volatile and people lose money when Awami league is in power?”, she asked.



She urged the government sponsored businessmen to return the billions of money taken from small investors of the country’s stock markets.




Border guards menace



Khaleda Zia openly criticized the way the present Awami League government dealt the issues of the Indo-Bangladesh frontier and the border guards.



“What we are receiving through the frontier is drugs from India and what we are losing are the best products of our country”, she said.


About the massacre of Bangladesh Armed Forces officers in name of mutiny in February 2009, she said,
“The murderers of the armed forces officers will take place on this land of Bangladesh. No one is going to be spared.”



“The nation at every point witnessed what this government did to our armed forces, our border guards. We are becoming unprotected everyday”, Begum Zia said.





The much anticipated meeting began at around 3pm, occupying vast area around the Alia Madrasa ground near the tomb of Hazrat Shahjalal (R). Main roads in the radius of some 10 kilometers from the meeting spot remained apparently locked down since Tuesday noon.



Workers and supporters of the party reportedly had to walk the distance to reach where Begum Zia spoke to the crowd.



Begum Zia also declared the next major movement to head to the northern part of the country, as she said ‘BNP would advance with its movement to topple the treacherous Awami League government’.



Begum Zia is about to leave Sylhet for Dhaka Tuesday night.