New leaders to bring success

Strengthened with new leadership, BNP's "democracy restoration" movement will now achieve success, its secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, told journalists yesterday after visiting an ailing former footballer at the latter's Jigatola residence in the capital.

"BNP's national council has surely helped the party become revitalised and reorganised," he said on providing, on Chairperson Khaleda Zia's behalf, financial assistance to Ainul Haq, a Swadhin Bangla Football Team member battling cancer for long, as per his family.

Fakhrul said with no democracy and "under the rule of an undemocratic and unelected government", the ruling party men were taking over polling stations and snatching people's right to franchise.

Lambasting government plans to hike power and gas tariffs, he claimed it was "to plunder more public money", threatening to wage tougher movements with the masses. He said utility costs have been raised in phases since the government assumed office in 2014.