Staff Reporter:
BNP’s Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Wednesday said that the government has in-creased fertilizer prices “abnormally” to meet the conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“The prices of commodities are going up unusually since the government is raising the tariffs of electric-ity and gas— accepting conditions of the IMF to stay in power. Now the prices of fertilizers farmers must use have been hiked unusually,” he said.
Fakhrul made the remarks at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office while presenting Eid gifts to family members of opposition leaders and activists who were “victims of enforced disappearance under the cur-rent government.”
BNP sources said the party, on behalf of its acting chairman Tarique Rahman, will provide Eid gifts to “1,000 families of the victims of killings, repression, and enforced disappearance across the country.”
Fakhrul said the government urged the farmers to accept the raised prices of fertilisers for the sake of development. “What development and whose development is it? This development is the ruling party’s own development.”
He said discrimination has widened in Bangladesh since the ruling party leaders are “making money, buying houses, and cars, and living a luxurious life by indulging in plundering while the common people are struggling to eat and make ends meet.”
“The prices of all things have gone beyond their purchasing capacity,” he added.
The BNP leader said people of Bangladesh did not know the term “enforced disappearance” before the Awami League government came to power in 2009.
The BNP leader said their party wants to build a truly free and independent democratic country where no one will be subjected to enforced disappearance and where people can live freely with security.
