Fugitive Awami League Is Fuelling Unrest in Industrial Units, Rizvi Says in Chattogram
BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has said that after the government gave assurances on workers' fair demands, the large majority of genuine workers withdrew from the movement, and a quarter is now provoking unrest in industrial units.
He made the remarks on Thursday afternoon as chief guest at a rally organised by the Chattogram Metropolitan BNP at Kazir Dewri in Chattogram city, held ahead of a procession marking the historic 7 November National Revolution and Solidarity Day.
Rizvi said police vehicles and boxes had been set on fire, and that the fugitive Awami League and its collaborators were behind the incitement in these incidents.
After the rally, the procession started from Kazir Dewri and ended at Jamal Khan in the city.
He said bank looting, corruption and money laundering took place during the Awami League's rule and that attempts were being made to bring back that politics of looting, but the people of the country did not want to return to that situation.
According to Rizvi, the people of Bangladesh are united to protect independence and sovereignty and to maintain the continuity of multi-party democracy, and the spirit of 7 November provides that strength and courage.
He added that the spirit of 7 November is the spirit of establishing democracy, independence and multi-party political rights, and that everyone must remain united, inspired by that spirit, to protect the country's independence, sovereignty and democracy and to resist any aggressive and hegemonic force and their local agents.
Rizvi said that spirit ensured people's freedom of speech, the right to express opinions and the freedom to form political parties.
He said that on 25 January 1975 the Awami League took away democracy, political rights and press freedom by establishing a one-party system, after which a united movement of soldiers and people created a new possibility for democracy, a course that martyred President Ziaur Rahman carried forward.
Rizvi also said the spirit of 7 November was at work from the anti-Ershad movement to the 2024 mass uprising, and that people no longer want to face enforced disappearances, killings or torture for holding different political views.
He said people had placed their trust after an interim government was formed under Professor Muhammad Yunus, that the BNP later came to power through a free and fair election, and that Tarique Rahman was running the state in line with the promises made before the election. He also noted that initiatives were taken soon after coming to power to introduce family cards and farmer cards for poor and marginalised people.
The rally, chaired by Chattogram Metropolitan BNP convener and MP Ershad Ullah and conducted by member secretary Nazimur Rahman, was also addressed by State Minister for Land and Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Barrister Mir Mohammad Helal Uddin, State Minister for Railways Habibur Rashid Habib, Chattogram District Council administrator Mahbuber Rahman Shamim, Chattogram-10 MP Said Al Noman, central health affairs secretary Dr Rafiqul Islam, Chattogram City Corporation administrator Dr Shahadat Hossain and Metropolitan Jubo Dal president Mosharraf Hossain Dipti, among others.
