Govt should release Khaleda for its own good: Fakhrul
"If anything happens to her, they (the government) will be held responsible," he said
Reiterating the demand for an unconditional release of their party chief, Begum Khaleda Zia, and her improved treatment abroad, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said the government needs to release Khaleda for its own good. The people will not spare the government if anything serious happens to the former prime minister, he added.
"Release Begum Khaleda Zia without any further delay and send her abroad. Otherwise, you [the government] will be held wholly responsible for it [any harm caused to Khaleda]," Fakhrul said at a human chain held in front of the National Press Club in the capital on Thursday afternoon.
The Jatiyatabadi Muktijoddha Dal organised the human chain demanding the release of the BNP chairperson, who has been convicted in two graft cases and is on sending her abroad for advanced treatment.
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After being convicted in a graft case, Khaleda landed in jail in 2018. In the wake of the outbreak of Covid-19, the government in March last year suspended her imprisonment order under the condition that she would not leave the country.
The BNP chief who had been suffering from arthritis, diabetes and several eye issues for years has been diagnosed with liver cirrhosis recently and was passing blood that her doctors said requires treatment at an advanced medical centre abroad. She is now undergoing treatment at a hospital in Dhaka.
She had served 25 months out of a 17-year prison sentence in two graft cases involving the Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust.
The incumbent government has destroyed the healthcare system in the country, alleged Mirza Fakhrul, adding no one gets proper treatment in government hospitals.
He also said the government has destroyed the economy. "You [government] have crippled the banks by plundering them but repeatedly say that Bangladesh is a role model of development.
"People spend their days on the streets without food. Farmers do not get fair prices for their paddy, they do not get fair prices for other produce. Our workers do not get due wages. The poor are becoming poorer… On the other hand, some people are making money through unholy means. They are building houses in Begum Para in Canada by embezzling public money."
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir called upon all in the movement for the release of Khaleda Zia and said, "Today our valiant freedom fighters have gathered. Their rifles once roared in 1971 to make the country independent. All of you please take to the streets once again, demanding the release of Khaleda Zia. We will free Khaleda Zia through movement."
"Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader said a few days ago that Sheikh Hasina would become the country's prime minister for the fourth time. He said a law will be enacted on the formation of the Election Commission but the next election will not be under the law. This means, they will grasp the posts in elections again by driving the opposition parties out of the election field on the night before the election."
At the programme, Major General (retd) Syed Muhammad Ibrahim, chairman of Bangladesh Kalyan Party, said, "The wife of a Bir Uttam is now a prisoner. We are protesting through our lips, but our hearts are bleeding. We cannot afford to sit idle."
