BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday alleged that the Awami League-led government has failed to protect the rights of the country's minority communities.
"This government always tries to speak out against communalism…but unfortunately attacks have been made on the members of Hindu, Buddhist and Christian communities and their lands and homes during its rule,” he said.
Speaking at a prayer programme at Dhakeswari National Temple, the BNP leader said the government failed to ensure the security of the minority communities and prevent attacks on them, reports UNB.
He said the USA in its report on ‘International Religious Freedom’ has clearly stated that the Awami League government has failed to protect the rights of the minority communities in Bangladesh. “This is the reality.”
The Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Kalyan Front arranged the programme, marking BNP founder Ziaur Rahman’s birth anniversary and paying tribute in memory of the organisation’s convener Gautam Chakraborty who died recently.
Mirza Fakhrul said there is no democracy in the country while people have lost all democratic rights.
He said their party has been trying to unite the country’s 170 million people to restore democracy, human rights, and peace in the country and uproot all the seeds of communalism.
The BNP leader also said they want to truly establish that Bangladesh is the nation dreamt of in 1971.
“So, we have to continue our struggle for the restoration of democracy. We pray that democracy, the truth and beauty be established in our country,” he said.
Criticising the government for resorting to repressive acts, Fakhrul said BNP Chairperson Khaleda has been kept under house arrest out of political vengeance.
He also said their party’s around 600 leaders and activists were made disappeared while over 1,000 others were killed and 3.5 million opposition leaders and activists have been implicated in ‘false’ cases.
