BNP Acting Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has said the forces that practised enforced disappearances and killings under the previous fascist rule are still conspiring to obstruct the government's development and progress.
He made the remarks as chief guest at a memorial meeting at the National Press Club in Dhaka on Saturday afternoon.
The meeting was organised by Shaheed Jehad Smriti Parishad on the 36th martyrdom anniversary of Nazir Uddin Jehad, a young student leader from Sirajganj killed in the 1990 movement against autocrat Ershad.
Rizvi said Jehad's sacrifice and a nine-year struggle brought down the autocracy, and that the spirit of restoring democracy flowed from that path. He said the defeated autocratic forces of 1990 and the defeated fascist forces of 2024 are "cut from the same cloth."
He credited BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, who endured false cases, torture and imprisonment without compromise, and Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman, who led a far-sighted movement from abroad, with laying the groundwork for the July 2024 uprising. The uprising, he said, "did not emerge overnight."
Rizvi said the previous regime looted the country for 17 years, emptied banks, laundered thousands of crores of taka abroad, and practised enforced disappearances and killings. He alleged that its collaborators remain hidden in the administration and elsewhere in society, and that they are still conspiring to obstruct the government's development.
He urged the government to identify and firmly deal with them. "There can be no leniency toward those who carried out crossfire killings, murdered people and plundered public money," he said, adding that people would stand by the government if it took strong action against injustice.
He said there would be no compromise with miscreants and that those behind the cocktail blast near the Prime Minister's Office must be found. If miscreants rise, he warned, the country's independence and sovereignty will not survive.
Referring to the upcoming Durga Puja, Rizvi said Bangladesh is a land of centuries-old communal harmony, where people have joined one another's religious festivals through the ages. He warned that defeated forces could plot something centred on the puja at any time.
He urged every BNP leader and activist, along with ordinary citizens, to guard puja mandaps so that Hindu families can celebrate in peace.
Shaheed Jehad Smriti Parishad President and BNP Standing Committee member Amanullah Aman presided. Former DUCSU GS Khairul Kabir Khokon and AGS Nazim Uddin Alam moderated.
Other speakers included Mostafizur Rahman Babul MP, Habibur Rahman Habib, Shirin Sultana MP, Mir Sarafat Ali Sapu and Saif Mahmud Jewel, along with central leaders of the 1990 All-Party Chhatra Sangram Parishad.