AL wants to ban opposition parties: Moyeen Khan

Senior leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Abdul Moyeen Khan on Sunday alleged that the ruling Awami League wants to ban the opposition parties in the country to further consolidate its power.

"The Awami League has exerted control over both the judiciary and parliament in its quest to perpetuate power. They now want to obliterate opposition parties. This is the mentality of Awami League,” he said.

Talking to reporters on the grave site of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman, Moyeen also said, “The bottom line is that this regime wants to ban the opposition parties in the country since it does not believe in democracy.”

Unlike the Awami League, he claimed that the BNP does politics for the people of the country instead of only going to power. “The movement we have been carrying out for the past one and a half years is only for establishing a government of people in the country. “We’re not greedy for power."

He said their party’s objective is to bring a change in power so that the people of Bangladesh can regain real ownership of the country in their own hands.

Moyeen, a former minister and a BNP standing committee member, said the people of Bangladesh have not given the right to any political party to loot public money, amass wealth and resources and build posh areas and second homes abroad. “Bangladesh has not become independent for that reason."

Earlier, the leaders and workers of Jatiyatabadi Tanti Dal, led by  Moyeen Khan, paid homage to Zia by placing wreaths at his grave, marking the 44th founding anniversary of the associate body of BNP.

They also offered a mujajat there praying for the salvation of Zia’s departed soul.

About the 12th parliament election, Moyeen asserted that the results were predetermined, with the government preselecting winners for each seat before the January 7 election day. “That's why the people of the country boycotted the election."

He said there is no democracy in this country as the government has usurped power snatching the voting rights of people. “Even, the major international media outlets and magazines are saying that Bakshal-2 has been established in Bangladesh.”

The BNP leader also said the attack on the BNP's 'peaceful' rally on 28 October by the members of the law enforcement agencies was a crackdown on opposition parties by the government.

“This is what the international world media said. Through the crackdown, the government has once again snatched the voting rights of the people of this country. So, the parliament and the government formed (through the January 7 polls) do not represent the people," he observed.

In this transitional period of the country, Dr Moyeen said their party has been carrying out the movement for the restoration of democracy.

The BNP leader said the people liberated the country through a bloody war to establish democracy and the economic emancipation of the poor and to get rid of autocracy and exploitation by the Pakistanis.

“The Awami League government has undermined the main spirit of the country's Liberation War as it erased democracy and snatched the right to vote," he said.