BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Wednesday said that if the party is elected to power, employment opportunities will be created for 10 million youths within one and a half years through agro-based industries, factories and technical training programmes.
He made the remarks while addressing a road meeting organised by the BNP at Kismat Daulatpur Dakhil Madrasa and Eidgah ground in Thakurgaon Sadar upazila.
Mirza Fakhrul also criticised what he described as offensive remarks against women by a group, saying no country could be run by people who do not respect women.
“For some time now, we have been seeing on social media and in newspapers that a group is using derogatory language about women,” he said. “How will those who cannot respect our mothers and sisters run the country?”
He said the BNP believes in action rather than rhetoric. “Everyone has the right to do politics and contest elections, but people must not be misled with falsehoods,” he added.
Warning voters, the BNP leader alleged that Jamaat-e-Islami was misleading people in the name of Islam. “They are deceiving mothers and sisters by claiming that voting for a particular symbol will ensure paradise. No Muslim believes this,” he said, adding that respect for one’s mother was a fundamental Islamic value.
Referring to past political repression, Mirza Fakhrul said 117 cases had been filed against him and that he had spent three and a half years in jail. He also mentioned that BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia had spent nearly a decade in prison and that thousands of BNP leaders and activists had been killed.
He expressed hope that power would be transferred through fair elections and urged voters to support the BNP by voting for the paddy sheaf symbol on February 12.
Outlining BNP’s election pledges, he said the party would introduce family cards for all households and farmer cards for farmers. Farmers would be able to purchase fertiliser, seeds and agricultural inputs at fair prices, loans up to Tk10,000 would be waived, and the government would bear the instalments of NGO loans taken by women.
District, upazila and ward-level BNP leaders and activists, along with local voters, were present at the program.
