Fakhrul urges unity to build ‘New Bangladesh’ at memorial for Khaleda Zia

Begum Khaleda Zia, according to BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, is the country's unchallenged and unyielding leader who has devoted her life to restoring democracy.

He claimed that the BNP has been subjected to severe persecution, including the forced disappearance of about 1,700 activists and six million false accusations against its members.

Speaking at a memorial and doa mehfil for former prime minister and BNP chair Begum Khaleda Zia at a city hotel, he made this statement.

Fakhrul emphasised in his speech the "baseless legal battles Zia faced," citing one instance in which the High Court increased a trial judge's five-year sentence to ten years.

He claimed that rather than providing justice, the court system at the time was more concerned with appeasing the ruling class.

Zia arrived in prison in good health, but after two years of being detained in an abandoned, rodent-infested building without access to adequate medical care, she was eventually forced into a wheelchair, according to the Secretary General's graphic account of her ordeal.

Fakhrul said, "I find no comparison to her," highlighting the fact that she was not only a party leader but a national leader who resisted narrow-mindedness.

Despite her serious illness, Zia gave a message of hope for the country, Fakhrul recalled, recalling the moments after the student-led mass uprising on August 5, 2024.

Her instruction was unambiguous. "Unity and love, not retaliation or hatred, must be the foundation of the new Bangladesh," he continued.

He claimed that during a time of possible lawlessness, this message played a crucial role in stabilising the nation.

Citing Begum Khaleda Zia's 1971 arrest by Pakistani forces while her husband, Ziaur Rahman, was fighting on the front lines, Fakhrul reaffirmed his belief that Zia was the nation's first female freedom fighter.

Ziaur Rahman, whom he credited with bringing multi-party democracy and a free press to Bangladesh after 1975, was linked to her struggle.

He urged the populace to turn their sorrow into fortitude in order to thwart ongoing plots and create the Bangladesh that was envisioned in accordance with the ideals of the 1991 War of Liberation and the 1990 and 2024 movements.

Fakhrul emphasised that the only way to truly honour her memory is to realise her aspirations for a democratic future. "We must stand up again," she said.