AL will stay out for 42 years this time: Khaleda

The Awami League, once pushed from office, will not return to power in 42 years, Khaleda Zia has said.

The BNP chairperson, addressing a public rally in Munshiganj on Wednesday, urged everyone to prepare for a movement which will bring down the ruling party.

She criticised the government for stopping the two BNP programmes in Dhaka.

“The Awami League is afraid of the people, which is why they are against holding meetings and rallies. They act like those bitten by rabid dogs,” she said.

“They must be kicked out. People once kept them away from power for 21 years, this time they will stay out for 42 years,” said the former prime minister.

Khaleda was scheduled to attend two BNP rallies in Dhaka last week at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh and on the Supreme Court premises.

But police stopped them on grounds that her party had not secured necessary permission.

This was Khaleda's second public rally since the Jan 5 general elections that her party with allies boycotted.

On March 1, the former opposition leader had addressed a public gathering in Rajbarhi.

The thousands gathered at the rally site in Hatlakshmiganj received the BNP chief with loud applaud when she arrived there at 4:30pm.

Leaders of the BNP’s partners in the 19-Party Alliance were conspicuously absent in the rally.

Khaleda spoke for around 40 minutes and claimed there was massive ‘misrule’ at play and again demanded that the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the force she originally set up during her 2001-06 rule, be dissolved with immediate effect.

“They (RAB) have caught gangrene or cancer. They must be removed the way limbs, affected with gangrene, are cut off.”

She also suggested that another force be created to take the place of the elite police unit.