Shawdesh Desk;

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee member Mirza Abbas on Friday alleged that the ruling Awami League government had made the country ‘bottomless’ through corruption and looting.

Abbas came up with the remarks while addressing a mass prayer programme arranged by Dhaka South Unit BNP in front of the BNP’s central office in Naya Paltan, marking the 43rd death anniversary of party founder Ziaur Rahman.

Ziaur Rahman declared independence and fought the war of independence directly in Bangladesh,’ Abbas said.

‘President Ziaur Rahman, in his only three and a half years of state management, took Bangladesh forward from the bottomless basket, but the incumbent government again made Bangladesh bottomless,’ he said.

Criticising the increase in fuel prices by Tk 2.5 per litre on Thursday, Abbas said that it would impact people barely.

‘If the price of electricity and oil increases, it will affect people’s livelihoods,’ he said.

Bangladesh is now facing a serious crisis as the looting and laundering of money are going on unabated by the people of the government.

Abbas said that once some people had said that the BNP would not exist in the absence of president Ziaur Rahman, but the BNP survived ‘by the grace of Allah and will survive forever.’

‘BNP has survived in the minds and hearts of people, will survive, and, inshallah, will protect the country from all kinds of disasters,’ he said.

Abbas said that the BNP is the only party in whose hands the independence and sovereignty of the country are safe.

The leaders and activists of the BNP from different wards of Dhaka city participated in the mass prayer and prayed for the party founder.

Earlier in the day, BNP standing committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, at a programme, claimed that party chairperson Khaleda Zia had been imprisoned by the government for nearly seven years to destroy the BNP.

‘But the government’s efforts have failed. BNP became stronger under the leadership of Tarique Rahman,’ he said while addressing a photo exhibition at the BNP office in Naya Paltan arranged by Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal marking the 43rd death anniversary of Zia.

In another programme, BNP senior secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Friday also criticised the government for increasing prices of electricity, fuel, and water.

He said electricity, gas, water, and fuel prices are being hiked to divert public attention from the wrongdoing of former army chief General Aziz Ahmed and former Inspector General of Police Benazir Ahmed.

Rizvi said this while addressing as chief guest at a rally in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka arranged by ‘Nagorik Odhiker Andolan’ protesting the increase in prices of utility items and the demolition of a mural inaugurated by Tarique Rahman in Bogura.

He said that the former army chief and the police chief helped the ‘mafia’ government suppress movements and became the owners of so much wealth.

‘They have been given the opportunity because they have brutally suppressed BNP’s processions, BNP programmes, and any kind of assembly of agitating people.

‘Sheikh Hasina [the prime minister] promoted them one after another, he said.

He also said that many others, like Benazir-Aziz, are still in the government.

All the responsibilities of Benazir-Aziz belong to the Awami government. One day, the people will judge all the misdeeds of this government.