Lakhs attended BNP's rally, less than 50,000 were at AL's: Fakhrul 

The Awami League rally on 12 July did not even have 50,000 people, whereas lakhs attended the BNP rally held on the same day, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has claimed.

"An invisible force told the media to report in such a way so that the two rallies appeared equal in size," Fakhrul said at a meeting of professionals at Engineers Institution Auditorium on Saturday.

"Even TV channels were not allowed to broadcast the rally live," Mirza Fakhrul alleged.

At the meeting, Fakhrul called upon the professionals to take to the streets and lead the way for the restoration of democracy by holding the next polls under a non-party neutral government.

He called upon different professional bodies, including the bodies of lawyers, physicians, engineers and teachers to form separate fronts and take all-out preparations for making the one-point movement a success.

Get out of the house, get out of work, and encourage people to get out, he urged. "We will defeat them (AL) with the power of the people." 

He said any change in state is never complete until its professional and intellectual people come forward. 

"In all movements, intellectuals have played the biggest role in bringing about fundamental change," Fakhrul added.

He said people have woken up and they are spontaneously participating in the different programmers of the opposition.

He mentioned that there can be no compromise with the ruling party which threatens to lock up all electable BNP leaders.

"There is no way open before us. I don't want to see what a country's visa policy is, or isn't. I am moving with the power of the people."

The BNP secretary general said, "We feel most helpless with that judicial system and we feel most helpless when we go to court. We are the biggest victims of the existing judicial system. The most popular democratic leader of this country, Begum Khaleda Zia was unjustly convicted in a completely false case."

Fakhrul said the nation is in an extreme crisis today. "It is a matter of our existence."

"Can we survive independently, create a socialist society, stand tall with our culture and traditions, create a worthy home land for future descendants, establish values, create institutions for democracy, development and move forward as a nation?" the BNP leader asked. 

After the meeting, a procession was taken out which ended in front of the National Press Club.

Leaders of various professions including lawyers, doctors, engineers, agriculturists, journalists, teachers, poets and writers from different parts of the country participated in it.

The event was organised by Bangladesh Sammilit Peshajeebi Parishad (BSPP) to demand the resignation of the government and to protest against partisanship in administration, jobs and promotions, dismissal and suppression of dissidents, jail-oppression, murder, and disappearance.