Jatiya Party (JaPa) Chairman HM Ershad yesterday said BNP founder Ziaur Rahman was a freedom fighter but he destroyed the spirit of the Liberation War.
He said the BNP founder’s wife Khaleda Zia had handed the national flag over to anti-liberation forces.
“Misrule, terrorism, anarchism and vindictive politics destroy peace,” he said, adding that JaPa wants another chance to make a new Bangladesh by forming government after the next election with the support of people.
Ershad was addressing a rally at Laldighi ground in Chittagong city around 4pm. JaPa Chittagong city unit President Mahzabin Morshed presided over the rally while hundreds of activists and supporters gathered joined it.
The JaPa chief said he had begun a new campaign for the next election from the port city and his party would contest the election from 300 constituencies.
“The JaPa does not follow terrorism-based politics. It believes in peaceful politics. It is the one and only nationalist party which believes in the Liberation War and sovereignty of the country,” he said.
“We will give people back the golden past which they experienced during my regime. At the time, people were provided with all kinds of citizen rights,” he also said.
Ershad said he had spearheaded many developments for the port city, including the second Karnaphuli bridge, Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited and Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company Limited, and would turn it into the business capital if his party could assume power for one more time.
The former president claimed the country had been experiencing the worst period since his tenure ended.
JaPa lawmaker Anisul Islam Mahmud said the party would form government after the next election as only it could change the country.
The party’s Secretary General Ziauddin Bablu, also a lawmaker, said the JaPa is the party that works for the common people.
