Fakhrul wants AL govt resign

The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Thursday said the Awami League government has failed to address the ongoing students' demonstration.

He asked the government to step down, given the failure to deal with the student protests. following deaths of two students and alleged mis-governance in the transport sector.

The BNP leader made the demand while speaking at a press conference at the party’s central Naya Paltan office.

"This illegal regime has failed to contain many incidents including road crashes. We are asking the people to join us in the anti-government protest. We demand the government resign,” he said.

Mirza Fakhrul told a qustioner that the opposition party has extended its moral support to the students' demonstration with a "logical cause".

The BNP leader pointed out that the Awami League general secretary and road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader cannot deny his responsibility as well.

“Who has given the licence and responsibility to the drivers? Why is there no management? There are no rules in Dhaka’s traffic system and this is because the government has no accountability,” he said.

Fakhrul alleged that after failing to control the students’ 'logical movement', prime minister Sheikh Hasina is resorting to lies about Ziaur Rahman, late president and founder of the BNP.

“We too can come up with allegation -- Ziaur Rahman was killed only 17 days after Sheikh Hasina returned home,” he said, in an oblique reference to prime minister's Sheikh Hasina's latest allegation that Ziaur Rahman had complicity with the coup that killed Bangabandhu Sheikh Mijibur Rahman and his family members on 15 August 1975.

Fakhrul insisted that Ziaur Rahman, who was killed on 30 May 1981 in another coup, was not involved in any killing.

BNP standing committee members Mirza Abbas, Nazrul Islam Khan, and Goyeshor Chandra Ray, and senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi were present at the press briefing.