BNP has risen like a phoenix time and again despite repeated attempts to destroy it: Fakhrul
The BNP has waged long struggles and movements to restore democracy, the BNP leader said today after paying respects at the grave of BNP founder and late president Ziaur Rahman on the occasion of the party's 47th founding anniversary
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said although repeated attempts have been made to destroy the party, it has always risen like a phoenix.
The BNP has waged long struggles and movements to restore democracy, said the BNP leader today (1 September) after offering prayers and paying respects at the grave of BNP founder and late president Ziaur Rahman on the occasion of the party's 47th founding anniversary.
From early morning, thousands of leaders and activists from different levels of the party gathered at Ziaur Rahman's grave to pay their tributes.
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"Time and again, efforts have been made to wipe out the BNP, but it has risen like a phoenix, with the ideals of Ziaur Rahman and Khaleda Zia. To destroy the BNP, false cases have been filed against 6 million leaders and activists. Around 20,000 have been killed, and 1,700 leaders and activists have been disappeared," he added.
Stating that the country has been freed from Sheikh Hasina's "terrible fascism" through the July Uprising, Fakhrul said, "Now our challenge is to help ensure that the upcoming national election in February is held properly."
Talking about the BNP's founding anniversary, Fakhrul said, "Today is a very important day for us. With the founding of the BNP, Ziaur Rahman brought about fundamental changes to Bangladesh's economy and transformed the country from a one-party system to a multi-party democracy."
He went on to say that the central ideology and goal of the BNP's politics is Bangladesh nationalism, which brought profound changes to national politics.
"Within a short time, shaheed president Ziaur Rahman ensured press freedom, people's basic rights and the independence of the judiciary. He also introduced the free market economy, which brought sweeping changes to the economy," Fakhrul mentioned.
"Ziaur Rahman initiated the garment industry and started exporting labour abroad. Later, BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia reinstated parliamentary democracy and established a caretaker government system."
Fakhrul said the BNP has extended full cooperation to the interim government's reform commissions.
"If the BNP, with the support of the people of Bangladesh, is entrusted with running the state, it will bring about both political and economic changes. Undoubtedly, it will take Bangladesh forward," he said.
