People will throw this govt out: Khaleda

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has asked her supporters to get ready for the next general election saying the people will force the government out.

In an interaction with leaders of her party's Khulna and Barisal divisional units on Monday, she said the government had become 'isolated'.

"A time will come when we'll have to do nothing. The people will oust them," Khaleda said reacting to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's comment that the BNP was losing ground.

"I'm telling you to stay away from factionalism and forge a national unity," she said adding the ruling Awami League would be forsaken by everyone.

The BNP chief is interacting with party leaders from across the country in Dhaka as part of her effort to build public opinion for an election under a neutral caretaker government.

"The party will nominate those who will lead the movement for the party," she said. "You have to work for the people and the party."

Mayors of Khulna and Barisal city corporations, 22 municipal mayors, 34 Upazila chairmen and 41 vice chairmen joined Monday's interaction with Khaleda at her Gulshan office.

"[Jatiya Party Chairman HM] Ershad is a murderer and so is [JaSaD chief Hasanul Haq] Inu," the BNP chief said.

"These are written in books. Inu had once said that the Awami League government had killed many of their men."

The former prime claimed the Awami League had "ties" with militants.

"Militancy spread whenever they came to power. Whose relative was [militant] Shaikh Abdur Rahman?

She claimed her party was in a strong position. "They (the Awami League) don't have soil under their feet, their position is shaky."

Khaleda alleged the government was tainted by corruption and using the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) to get relief.

She said the BNP would take steps against all sorts of 'corruption' when it returns to power.

The ACC has cleared all the seven accused in a corruption case over the Padma Bridge project saying it did not find any evidence.

"A trial on the Padma Bridge corruption is being held in Canada but they (the ACC) have let off all the accused in Bangladesh.

"The Anti Corruption Commission itself is committing corruption and giving indemnity to others," Khaleda alleged.