Staff Reporter:
BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman emphasised the importance of people’s determination to restore democracy, freedom of expression and voting rights in the country, defying all conspiracies.
Tarique Rahman, who has been residing in London since 2008, underscored the need in a message posted on his verified Facebook page on Friday.
The BNP leader in the post said that on 25 January 1975, the then Awami League government strangled the multi-party democracy and established a one-party Bakshal rule in the country intending to hang on to power forever.
To establish the one-party rule in the country, they also forcibly passed the mediaeval inhuman law by bringing the fourth amendment to the constitution, ignoring all voices of the opposition in the parliament.
In a government order, the administration at the time halted the publication of all newspapers except for four those were loyal to it, he wrote.
By doing so, the government established a reign of anarchy, suppressing the people’s long-cherished aspirations of the War of Liberation and undermining the country’s democracy and sovereignty, read the message.
To prolong the state power, the then government not only destroyed democracy and sovereignty but also plunged the people’s unity and solidarity into an acute crisis, said the BNP leader.
He said the Awami League-led government was seriously discourteous to the opposition and it turned prisons into the ultimate destination for the dissenting voices.
Sheikh Hasina, chief of the undemocratic and mass-isolated Awami League government was forced to flee to neighbouring India on 5 August following a violent protest, he said.
“Now we all people will have to be determined to restore democracy, people’s freedom of expression and voting rights, ignoring all conspiracies,” said the BNP leader.
