BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Monday said that the Awami League government wants to destroy Bangladesh Army in a bid to make the country a vassal state of India.
"We achieved independence not to become a state of India. Rather, we want to be a neighbour of India with similar status," added the leader of the opposition.
"They (India) have built barrages on all common rivers. But, our government failed to address the problem," said the former premier.
Khaleda is addressing a mammoth rally at Polo Ground in Chittagong city.
The BNP chief alleged that the government of Prime Minster Sheikh Hasina has already given corridor to India in guise of transit.
"Indian lorries are carrying arms and ammunition from its one part to another using the land of our country, but this government has nothing to say," Khaleda added.
Thousands of people from different parts of the country have gathered at the venue after their road march to the port city.
BNP city unit President Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury is chairing the rally.
Our reporters covering the public meeting said supporters from across the country started flocking to the ground since 10:00am to express their solidarity with BNP’s anti-government movement.
Leaders and activists of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir occupied a large part of the ground since the morning.
After a daylong journey from Dhaka, the BNP caravan reached Chittagong Sunday night.
On her way, Khaleda addressed three wayside rallies at Chandina, Noor Manikchad and Poduar Bazar in Comilla and a public meeting on Feni Government Pilot High School ground on the first day of her two-day road march.
In the rallies, the BNP chief demanded a non-party caretaker administration for the next parliamentary election.
The road march comes over a month after the third one towards Khulna.
Senior leaders of the four-party alliance and other like-minded parties are accompanying the BNP chairperson.
Some three thousand vehicles carried at least 15 thousand party members from the capital.
BNP declared the road march, aimed at drumming up support for its demand to get the caretaker government system restored.
Last year, the caretaker government provision was scrapped from the constitution through the 15th amendment, allowing en elected government to oversee the parliamentary polls. The BNP-led four-party alliance strictly opposed the move.
