Issuing a warning to opposition parties, BNP senior leader Mirza Abbas on Thursday said those who will participate in the next national elections under the current Awami League government will be considered national traitors.
Speaking at a rally in Dhaka, he also said their party will come up with a befitting reply if BNP leaders and activists are attacked by the ruling party men.
“Those who will join the election under the current regime will be considered as national traitors,” Abbas said.
He recalled that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as an opposition leader in 1986, said in Laldighi Maidan that those who would participate in the election under then military ruler Hussain Muhammad Ershad would be the national traitors.
But Sheikh Hasina herself joined that polls despite her warning to others, Abbas said.
BNP Dhaka South and North city units arranged the rally in front of the Jatiya Press Club protesting the continuous attacks on opposition leaders by ruling party “cadres” in different parts of the country including Comilla.
Referring to different media reports on joining polls by opposition parties sharing seats with the ruling party, Abbas said they will not allow holding any such election.
“No election of seat-sharing will be held and no stage-managed election will be allowed in Bangladesh. Keep it in mind,” he warned.
The BNP leader strongly condemned and protested the recent attacks on the local resident of their party’s senior leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and on some other party leaders and Bangladesh Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader Redwan Ahmed.
“We would like to clearly say that if we are again subjected to any kind of attack or repression, we will put resistance together. No one will be spared,” he said.
He said the ruling party leaders and activists were beaten by people as they attacked Mosharraf’s house and Redwan’s vehicle in Comilla.
“It means resistance has begun and now we have to come up with retaliation. We will ensure the fall of Awami League government through such resistance and retaliation,” he added.
Stating that holding rallies, meetings, and processions are the fundamental rights of political parties, Abbas said their party has long been deprived of that right in the name of permission. “We will no longer seek permission for arranging such programs,” he added.
