Awami League wants to stay in power to save illegal wealth: BNP

BNP leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has asked the ruling party not to try to cling to power to save “illegally-earned wealth.”

He made the statement at a rally of BNP’s labour wing Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal in the capital on Monday.

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader recently warned his party leaders and activists not to misuse power.

"If the party is not in power, you will have to run around from one place to another with all the money you have made," Quader said at an Awami League's meeting in Chittagong on Saturday.

BNP Secretary General Fakhrul jumped on Quader’s remarks and said: “Now they have confessed that the money they have earned is illegal and they will desperately try to cling to power to save it.”

Sramik Dal activists paraded down Dhaka streets with placards demanding fair wages for workers. A musical band performed along.

They returned to BNP’s Paltan office and gathered there after the procession.

Addressing the gathering, Fakhrul said: “The workers are still denied their right to trade union and are often tormented if they try to form unions.”

He called for workers to unite for their rights.

BNP’s Standing Committee member Nazrul Islam Khan said workers were not safe at factories.

Thousands of workers are dying in shipyards, boiler explosions, he said.

“A national wage commission is yet to be formed. Workers are still deprived of their rights. Only a government elected by the people can save them from this situation.”

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi also spoke.