Dhaka (August 20): Opposition chief Khaleda Zia greeted the nation on Eid on the Monday and urged all across the political spectrum to join the anti-government movement.
"You"ve suffered and shed tears a lot. This cannot go on anymore. Let"s all wage a united movement to establish a non-party government to hold a free and fair election in the country," she said.
The BNP Chairperson spoke to reporters after exchanging Eid greetings with diplomats, eminent citizens and people of di fferent professions at the Ladies" Club in the city"s Eskatan from 11:45pm.
"Surely after the Eid, we must launch movement to protect the interest of the people and the country… now there is no other alternative to movement," she said.
Khaleda said the people were not good even during the Eid festival; the law and order situation was in such a bad shape due to the government"s failure that the people were being killed on their way to say their special prayer in the mosque.
"Criminals have killed one of our party leaders in Khulna when he was on his way to the mosque to offer Eid prayer. There"s no security for the people in the country.".
"The people don"t want to see the government in power anymore. Without further delay, the government should make all arrangements for holding the next elections under a caretaker government," the former Prime Minister continued.
She also warned that the government would have to suffer in the long run if it tried to "do anything" by not reinstating the non-party caretaker government provision.
"The people want a free and fair election with participation of all parties, for which we"re demanding restoration of the caretaker government provision. If the government thinks that they"ve worked for the welfare of the people, they"ll have to wait for people"s verdict by handing the state power to a non-party government," she stressed.
Dean of the Diplomatic Corps Shaher Mohammad, diplomats and ambassadors of different countries were present at the function.
A delegation of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) led by President A K Azad also came to the function to exchange Eid greetings with the BNP chief. Senior BNP leaders and activists and those of the 18-Party Alliance were also present.
The BNP chief entertained the visitors and common people with sweets, cakes and vermicelli.
Khaleda visited the grave of her husband late President Ziaur Rahman at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the city at 2pm and offered prayers there.