The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) yesterday said that the High Court (HC) verdict against the party’s senior vice-chairman, Tarique Rahman, was aimed at destroying the party.
“It is now a question of our existence. No one will be able to survive. We have to come out of this situation,” said BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir while speaking at a rally at Jatiya Press Club.
The BNP’s city unit held the rally in protest against the HC verdict. City BNP convener Mirza Abbas chaired the meeting.
A High Court bench on Thursday sentenced Tarique Rahman to seven years of imprisonment and slapped a fine of Tk. 20.41 crore on him after quashing a trial court verdict that had acquitted him in a money laundering case.
Mirza Fakhrul alleged that the case against Tarique Rahman was filed by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) with a political motive and there was no truth in it. “The verdict was given only to keep Tarique Rahman out of politics,” he added.
Accusing the government of implicating each of the BNP leaders and activists in “false cases”, he said it had virtually entangled the nation in a net of cases.
He accused the government of filing “false cases” one after another, adding that it was trying to turn the country into a failed state in the name of militancy. “The Awami League has become a politically bankrupt party. And the government is trying to turn Bangladesh into a failed state,” he alleged.
Expressing his hope that the whole world was with the people of Bangladesh, he said: “We want cooperation from foreign countries. But we will resist any attack on our sovereignty.”
Mirza Fakhrul said the verdict against Tarique Rahman proved that the government has struck the very heart of the BNP.
 “After this, all BNP leaders and activists including party Chairperson Khaleda Zia will be sentenced. That’s why we have no time to stay idle in our homes,” he said.
Mirza Fakhrul said the government’s next target is Khaleda Zia, to be followed by other senior leaders. None of us will be sphered, he added.   
He, however, warned that country’s people would not just eat nuts sitting idle in their homes if Khaleda Zia is sent to jail. The people did not sit idel in 1952 and 1971, rather they realized their rights by their bloods, he added.
BNP standing committee members Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and Nazrul Islam Khan, vice-chairperson Selima Rahman, Abdullah Al Noman and others also spoke at the rally.
Meanwhile, the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) will hold demonstrations and bring out processions on July 26 and 27 protesting against the HC verdict. JCD office secretary Abdus Sattar Patwary said all city units of the JCD would hold demonstrations and bring out processions on July 26 and in Dhaka and the districts and in educational institutions on July 27.   
Earlier, on Saturday, all units of the BNP, except the Dhaka city unit, staged demonstrations in different parts of the country. The city unit alleged that it could not hold rallies in Dhaka on Saturday as the police did not give them permission.