BNP on Tuesday paid homage to its founder Ziaur Rahman marking its 42nd founding anniversary.

Party standing committee members, led by Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, placed wreaths at Zia’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar grave around 11:00 am and offered fateha there maintaining social distancing rules.

They also joined a special prayer (munajat) seeking salvation for Zia’s departed soul and good health of party chairperson Khaleda Zia.

BNP Standing Committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Moudud Ahmed, Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Nazrul Islam Khan and Selima Rahman and others were present.

Talking to reporters after placing the wreaths, Fakhrul said Awami League has established an ‘awful one-party fascist’ rule by ‘snatching’ democracy and people’s rights.

“Restoring democracy is now a big challenge for us. We must uphold the spirit of the Liberation War by restoring democracy and people’s lost rights,” he said.

Fakhrul said they will unite people to permanently free their chairperson Khaleda Zia, who has been released for six months on March 25 last following an executive order, from jail and establish a pro-people government.

Later, the leaders and activists of Dhaka south and north city units of BNP laid wreaths at the late president’s grave.

BNP and its associate bodies are celebrating the founding anniversary with various programmes across the country on a limited scale due to the prevalence of coronavirus.

To mark the day, the party flag was kept hoisted atop the buildings of BNP’s Nayapaltan central office and other offices across the country in the morning.

The party is scheduled to arrange a virtual discussion in the afternoon, marking the day.

Ziaur Rahman founded the party on September 1, 1978 with a 19-point programme to build a self-reliant Bangladesh. After his assassination on May 30, 1981, his widow Khaleda took over the party leadership.

The party had been in power four times and played the role of opposition twice.