People being denied of benefits of independence: BNP

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir today said that a vested quarter from home and abroad is engaged in hatching conspiracy to destroy the country’s independence and sovereignty.

“Authoritarian rule instead of democracy has been introduced in the country,” Fakhrul said in a statement ahead of the 49th Independence and National Day to be celebrated across the country tomorrow.

Fakhrul, in the statement, also extended greetings to the local and expatriate Bangladeshis and prayed for peace, progress and happiness of the people on this occasion.   

“Our independence is glorious in many contexts as it was earned in exchange of huge blood and people’s lives. But the countrymen are still being denied of benefits of the independence,” he said.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has been kept in confinement in jail so that people cannot raise voices for their fundamental human rights and benefits of independence, the BNP leader alleged.

The country’s free and fair electoral atmosphere has been exiled and the countrymen have been made powerless through the December 30 national election, he said.

He also called upon the nationalist democratic forces to build a steel-solid unity to retrieve the country’s “destroyed independence, democracy and sovereignty”.

“We will have to take to the street with a vigorous movement to free Khaleda Zia from jail and to restore the democracy to build a prosperous Bangladesh,” he said in the statement.