BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday said lawmakers from his party are ready to resign from the current parliament as their main goal is to restore democracy by ousting the Awami League government.

“We would like to plainly say that no election will be held in the country under Sheikh Hasina and without a caretaker government. Our only demand is the resignation of this regime.” He told a massive anti-government rally in Rangpur.

The BNP leader said the government must dissolve the parliament.

“Our Members of Parliament Harun, Rumeen and Zahid are ready to resign (from parliament) as per the directive of the party. The government must hand over power to a caretaker government which will form a new Election Commission and a fresh election will be held under it,” he said.

He said a national government will be formed after a credible election to repair the state, economy and politics that have been destroyed by the current government.

As part of the party’s planned rallies at division level, the Rangpur city unit BNP organised the programme on Rangpur Collector Eidgah ground.

Thousands of leaders and activists of the BNP and its associate bodies joined the rally, defying a transport strike.

An adequate number of police and other security officials have been deployed around the rally venue and at different points in the city to prevent any untoward incident.

The organisers said the rally was meant to denounce the price hike of daily essentials and fuels, the death of five party men in previous police action in Bhola, Narayanganj, Munshiganj and Jashore, and to ensure the freedom of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

On Saturday, Fakhrul saluted the people of Rangpur for making the rally a success after enduring untold sufferings and working hard for three days due to obstacles caused by a 36-hour transport strike.

He questioned why the government attempts to obstruct BNP’s rallies and guns down opposition activists and attacks them if it is not afraid of BNP.

“A party and one person (PM Sheikh Hasina) have ruined the entire country and repressed and suppressed us for the last 15 years…They’ve chewed up the economy and destroyed it. They’re now trying to eat up the entire Bangladesh,” Fakhrul said.

He said the resignation of the current government is their only demand as it has destroyed the nation's all achievements. "Wherever you look at, you’ll see their theft. They’re stealing from the construction work on roads and bridges and even from the construction work on building houses for our poor people. They’re eating up everything, not sparing anything,” the BNP leader alleged.

BNP standing committee members Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Selima Rahman, and Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, BNP vice chairman AZM Zahid Hossain, joint secretary general Harunur Rashid and organising secretary Asadul Habib Dulu, among others, spoke at the programme.

The BNP has long been demanding that the next general election be held under a caretaker government, not under any political government--a demand sharply rejected by the ruling Awami League as the constitution does not allow it to happen.

The BNP activists started gathering at the rally venue from Friday afternoon and many of them stayed overnight there.

Saturday’s rally was the fourth one by the BNP at the divisional level as the first one was held in Chattogram the second one in Mymensingh and the third in Khulna.

To make the rally a success, BNP men from different districts, including Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha, Thakurgaon, Panchagarh, and Dinajpur, came to Rangpur in various ways including by trains, motorbikes, auto-rickshaws, and human haulers amid an allegation of using the transport owners and workers by Awami League to enforce the strike in the region.

But the ruling party in Rangpur has denied any involvement with the transport strike.

Rangpur District Motor Owners' Association has enforced the transport strike from 6am Friday to 6pm Saturday, demanding a ban on illegal vehicles, including three-wheelers, on the highway and an end to "administrative harassment.”