'Bring culprits to book'

Terming the killings acts of genocide, he said the BNP-Jamaat alliance government has killed 14 people as they were demanding uninterrupted power supply for irrigation.

During its previous tenure, the BNP government had also killed farmers who demanded fertilisers, he said at a protest rally at Bahadur Shah Park in old part of Dhaka. The BDB and Bangladesh Tariqat Federation (BTF) jointly organised the rally.

Terming the alliance government 'a government of plunderers', Badruddoza said it has siphoned huge public money from the country into foreign countries, creating a crisis of dollars.

He also said that the farmers did not get supply of diesel and fertilisers in time. As a result, crop yields worth Tk 2000 crore will be lost this year, he added.

The BDB chief urged all to unite under an honest leadership to topple the alliance government, putting an end to its misrule.

BTF President Nazibul Bashar Maizbandhari said that if Khaleda-Nizami government comes to power again, pirs, fakirs, dargah and shrine will become extinct.

He said there are more than 450 pirs in the country and they have crores of followers who will play a significant role in the upcoming election.

Gono Forum General Secretary Saifuddin Ahmed Manik said the government has already set up a mechanism for manipulating the election results in its favour through appointing JCD cadres as upazila election officers and politicising the Election Commission.

BTF General Secretary Md Zakir Hossain, BDB Joint General Secretary Feroz M Hasan and Organising Secretary Mahi B Chowdhury also spoke.

Later, they took out a procession that ended at Zero point near the GPO.