AL gobbled up reserves: Mirza Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has alleged that the Awami League has gobbled up the reserve, in a reference to the country's depleting forex reserve.

"In the last ten years, Tk86 lakh crore has been smuggled. They have hiked electricity prices yet again and the price of every single item has increased. People's earnings have not improved while they have made their fortunes," he said, speaking as chief guest of a BNP rally at the Cumilla Town Hall ground Saturday.

Mirza Fakhrul once again reiterated BNP's demand of a caretaker government to oversee the upcoming parliamentary polls.  

"The Awami League came to power in 2014 by stealing votes and in 2018 by stuffing ballot boxes the night before the election day. They are contemplating to hold the next election the same way, but it will not be allowed to happen this time," he said.

"We liberated the country to build a prosperous Bangladesh," Fakhrul said, adding, "Today the people of the country want the downfall of this tyrannical government."

About BNP's scheduled rally finale on 10 December in Dhaka, Fakhrul claimed that the law-enforcement agencies are raiding the houses of BNP leaders and activists.  

"Nothing they do will stop us from holding the rally in Dhaka. They earlier said the rally cannot be held in Dhaka. Then they said the rally will be allowed in Suhrawardy. But it will be held in Paltan, not Suhrawardy Udyan," said Mirza Fakhrul.

In response to BNP insisting on holding the rally in Naya Paltan, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said Saturday that the government has no obligation.

"No official permission has been granted to them yet to hold a rally at Nayapaltan area," he was quoted by UNB as saying.

"As big rallies cannot be held anywhere else except Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital, the government decided to give BNP permission for that venue," said the home minister.

He added that BNP requested for three venues including Suhrawardy Udyan themselves and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner also found it to be suitable.

The BNP rally in Cumilla was held as part of the party's series of rallies across the country protesting persecution of party members, rising prices of daily necessities and demanding the release of BNP chief Khaleda Zia and elections under a non-partisan neutral government.

Among others, BNP standing committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Mirza Abbas, Nazrul Islam Khan, Vice Chairman Barkat Ulla Bulu, International Affairs Secretary Rumin Farhana and other local leaders spoke at the rally presided over by Cumilla South District BNP convener Amin-ur-Rashid Yasin.

Khandkar Mosharraf Hossain said, "Today the economy is on the verge of collapse. The middle class has become poor. The poor are half fed. The government has destroyed law and order and the judiciary."

BNP Vice Chairman Barkat Ulla Bulu referred to the last seven rallies and said, "They stopped the boats, the buses but could not stop people from attending the rallies. The people of this country are not afraid of their intimidation. The crowd in this rally is proof of that."

Thousands of BNP activists and supporters from nearby Chandpur and Brahmanbaria districts joined the Cumilla rally, which began around 11am Saturday.