DHAKA, March 11, 2022 (BSS) - Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader today said BNP

along with the communal forces had turned the democratic Bangladesh into a fascist state.

"An instance of carrying out repression-oppression on the minorities and the leaders and workers of the
oppositions was set during the BNP regime," he said in a statement issued protesting the statement of BNP
secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

Condemning the Fakhrul's statement, Quader, also road transport and bridges minister, said the BNP secretary
general alleged that the government wants to sustain in power forcefully.

"We want to say clearly that the Awami League is a political party of commoners. The AL was born to
establish the rights of people and its political struggle runs centering the aspirations of the people," he said.

Noting that the AL had always assumed power with people's mandate and following the democratic process,
the AL general secretary said the AL did not come to power through back door or at gunpoint.

He said the AL's relations with the country's independence and sovereignty is proven.

The rights of the country's people to self-governance was established through a long struggle under the
leadership of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, he said.

Quader said thousands of AL leaders and workers scarified their lives in establishing the country's
independence, sovereignty and democracy.

On the other hand, he said, the BNP was born by killing the independence, sovereignty and democracy of the
country.

Quader said military dictator Ziaur Rahman, the founder of BNP, seized the state power illegally and
proclaimed indemnity ordinance to protect the killers of the Father of the Nation and four national leaders,
violating the Constitution.
 
He said the politics of the BNP had revolved around the conspiracy to protect the country's anti-independence
forces and the killers of Bangabandhu and the four national leaders and to implement the anti-liberation
war political ideology.

The minister said the AL is such a political party,which had led the liberation war and independence
struggle of the country.

Due to uncompromised leadership of AL President Sheikh Hasina, democracy was restored in the country
defeating the long autocracy, he said.