Fakhrul urges country’s people to stand by quota protesters

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday called upon the country’s people and all political parties to stand beside the general students who are demonstrating across the country against the reinstatement of the quota system in government jobs.

Speaking at a discussion, he also described the Bangladesh Chhatra League’s (BCL’s) attacks on anti-quota protesters as the worst heinous incident in the country’s political history.

“Lying on hospital beds, bloodied students are calling upon us to protect them, stand by them and stay with their movement. This is the appeal of Bangladesh… I think the entire nation should respond to this call. All political parties should come forward and stand by them,” Fakhrul said.

He also said people of all strata, irrespective of their political affiliation, must take part in the movement and stand by the students to get rid of the autocratic and brutal rule of the Awami League.

Bhasani Anusari Parishad arranged the discussion at the National Press Club, marking the birth centenary of Mashiur Rahman (Jadu Miah), one of the founders of BNP.

Fakhrul strongly denounced the BCL’s attacks on the common students. “What this regime carried out yesterday (Monday), we have never seen before in Bangladesh. We have never seen the ruling party cadres enter the hospital and attack the wounded… We can never think of this, even during the Pakistan period.”

He said the ruling party cadres are reminding the nation of the brutalities of the Pakistani occupation forces.

The BNP leader also remarked that the ruling party’s current atrocities are no less than those of the Pakistani Army and said the government has unleashed its armed cadres to suppress a justified movement of the common students. “They [govt] are trying to suppress the students by terrible repression.”

He said Awami League has now become a bankrupt political party, losing its tradition. “Awami League has become completely dependent on bureaucrats and their so-called forces who have turned Bangladesh into a complete fascist state.”