Voting rights a national demand: Mirza Fakhrul
Staff Reporter :
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday said the restoring voting right is not only BNP’s demand, but it is a demand of all the countrymen.
“We are struggling utmost to restore democracy, restore voting rights which is not only BNP’s demand.
But it is a national demand as the government has snatched voting rights from the citizen,” Mirza Fakhrul said while speaking at the Representatives Conference of Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Oikya Front at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office in the capital.
The BNP leader said that none believes the Awami League’s propaganda that BNP is an anti-Hindu political party.
“The ruling Awami League is marketing it in our neighbouring coun try India, where the majority population is Hindu. They carry out false propaganda that BNP is an anti-Hindu organisation in Bangladesh. But the people know that it is false,” he said.
“Everyone knows that they (Hindus) were safe during our rule. And we can vigorously say that they (Hindus) remain safe when BNP is in power. We have a commitment to protect the rights of all communities,” the BNP leader said.
He said democracy is mandatory for protecting the safety and rights of minority communities.
Mirza Fakhrul said the ruling Awami League used to say they are the most non-communal party in the country.
“But the people know how secular they are.
We have seen the years 1972 to 1975.
People belonging to Awami League mostly occupied the houses, shops, and businesses of our religious minorities in Bangladesh,” he said.
“The Awami League leaders and activists were involved in the attacks on temples and vandalism of idols in different parts of the country and the arson attacks on Buddhist monasteries and communities in Ramu, Cox’s Bazar, during this incumbent government’s tenure,” he said.
Mirza Fakhrul said the ruling party men attacked the Hindus and other minority communities to grab their land and property by driving them away from the country.
They also did it to humiliate their political opponents by shifting the blame on them. People now understand it and they don’t believe nor accept it anymore, the BNP leader said.
He described the security measures taken for the Hindu community in Bangladesh by the then BNP government during the attack on Babri Masjid in India in 1992.
Fakhrul further said, “Today no one, be they members of Hindu, Buddhist, or Christian community, feels safe when Awami League is in power.
Common people also do not feel safe as anyone can be implicated in a false case anytime, as it become very natural to the AL government.”
He urged people from all walks of life to get united to restore democracy.
“I request the youth that you have to spread among all the people including your community members to motivate them that we have to win this fight for democracy.”
Many people belonging to minority communities have been made accused in cases filed under the draconian Digital Security Act, he added.
