BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, demanding elections at a reasonable time, said that a reasonable time does not mean too much time. The sooner elections are held, the better off the country will be.

He said that the power should be transferred to the people through the elections by carrying out urgent reforms. If necessary, we will protest on the streets again to establish democracy.

He said this at the memorial meeting of BNP leader ASM Hannan Shah at the Kapasia Government Pilot High School grounds in Gazipur on Friday (September 27) afternoon.

Secretary General of BNP said that even if Sheikh Hasina escaped, the crisis is not over. People believe that democracy should be established through free elections. He urged to vote as soon as possible by creating an environment suitable for elections.

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that he will not tolerate such excuses and said that Tariq Rahman should be given an opportunity to return to the country after withdrawing all the cases. If the cases filed against BNP activists are not withdrawn, there will never be a neutral situation.

He said, Awami League is still making various conspiracies. It wants to destabilize the country by plotting. Awami League can create various unstable situations around Durga Puja. Everyone should be alert. Hindu brothers are citizens of this country. I assure you, any incident will be dealt with unitedly.

Mirza Fakhrul commented that he got a chance to catch his breath after defeating the Awami League government in the student uprising. 

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has commented that after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in the students' movement, the relationship with India has started melting.

He made this comment in an interview given to Indian news agency ANI after a meeting with Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranoy Verma.

According to this report published on Wednesday (25 September), BNP believes that relations with India have started to thaw after the interim government led by Dr. Yunus took office.

Recently, Indian High Commissioner Pranoy Verma held a meeting with the party's general secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in Dhaka.

While talking to ANI, Mirza Fakhrul said that the meeting with Pranoy Verma has taken both countries in a very positive direction. He said, since the last election in Bangladesh, there were questions about our relationship. But this time the situation has certainly improved with the arrival of the High Commissioner (of India) in our office. The ice has started to melt.

The BNP boycotted the Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad elections held in January 2024. He said India and Bangladesh have always had very good relations and relations have improved. This is definitely the turning point.

The BNP secretary general said his party has assured India that it will not allow separatist organizations to use the soil of Bangladesh if it comes to power though, in the past, militant organizations in the northeastern region of India have been accused of sheltering in Bangladesh.

He said, we have discussed the normal relations between Bangladesh and India. We mentioned water sharing issues, border killings, existing trade imbalances. At the same time, India's main issue was the security problem. Assured that when we come to power, we will ensure that this territory cannot be used by separatists.

BNP Secretary General also said that there was some misunderstanding about the relationship between BNP and India. I think the snow is starting to melt. Hope this relationship will get better. This time they (India) will try to understand our condition; especially India should try to understand the pulse of the people of this country. They should not put all their eggs in one basket. They should develop relations between people (of both countries).

Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly the foreign adviser of the interim government Tauhid Hossain held a meeting with jis Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar. Matters of mutual interest between Dhaka and Delhi were discussed in the meeting.

In this regard, Fakhrul said, Jaishankar's meeting with the foreign adviser is definitely very significant and we believe that the relationship will be stronger after this meeting.

He further said that the cooperation between the people of India and Bangladesh should be strengthened. People-to-people relations are the key to strengthening India-Bangladesh relations.

Regarding the return of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Mirza Fakhrul said, "I don't know whether the government has officially requested India to send her (Sheikh Hasina) back to Bangladesh." But I think the former prime minister should come back and answer to face the allegations against her.

Sajib Wazed Joy, son of ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has expressed satisfaction with Army Chief General Waqar-uz-Zaman's expectation to see elections within the next 18 months after completing important reforms in the state.

However, Sajib Wazed Joy believes that no effective reforms or elections are possible without the Awami League, the political party that led the liberation war.

Jugantar Online, BDNews and BanglaNews have already published the report quoting Reuters.

On August 5, Army Chief General Waqar-uz-Zaman refused to stand by Sheikh Hasina in the face of massive student protests. Later she resigned and fled to India.

Then, at the request of the students who led the anti-discrimination movement, an interim government led by Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus took charge of Bangladesh who are undertaking various reform programs as per the expectations of the student agitators.

However, the interim government has not yet announced a specific time frame for when the Jatiya Sangsad(JS) elections will be held. In this regard, the advisers said, to heal the wounds of the 'fascist' Awami League and take the country on the right path, reforms are necessary first, then elections.

Meanwhile, in an interview given to Reuters on Monday (September 24), army chief General Waqar-uz-Zaman said that he believes Bangladesh should "transition to democracy" within one to one and a half years through reforms. However, he will support the interim government led by Dr. Yunus 'whatever the circumstances'.

On Tuesday, the day after the army chief's interview, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son Sajib Wazed told Reuters, "I am happy that we finally got a deadline for the election."

But we have seen this drama before where an unconstitutional, unelected government promises reforms and then things get worse, he said.

He cited the history of coups in Bangladesh since independence from Pakistan in 1971, most recently in 2007 when the army backed a caretaker government that ruled the country for two years.

After the fall of the Hasina government, the police went into disarray. At that time, the army played a major role in maintaining law and order. The army chief said he meets the head of the interim government every week. The military supports the country's stabilization efforts.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that discussions were held with Indian High Commissioner Prannoy Verma on border killings and distribution of water.

He gave this information after the BNP meeting with Prannoy Verma at the BNP Chairperson's political office in Gulshan on Sunday (September 22).

Mirza Fakhrul Islam said the meeting discussed how to deepen India-Bangladesh relations. We have highlighted the problems that Bangladesh has with India. We have also highlighted our party's problems. They need to be resolved quickly. Water distribution was discussed along with stopping border killings. Also, there has been more discussion about the issue of security. They said they are aware of the issues and are trying to resolve the issues quickly.

Mirza Fakhrul said, after the discussion, their (India's) main statement was that they want to strengthen relations with Bangladesh specially after this change has been communicated with the interim government.

Other members of the BNP delegation are BNP Vice Chairman Advocate Nitai Roy Chowdhury, BNP International Affairs Committee Member Shama Obaid.