BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman said the country must hold an election “at any cost”, warning that conspiracies had not stopped and that the country would face ruin if people did not remain united.

He made the remarks on Saturday (December 13) while joining virtually from London at the BNP’s “Plan to Build the Country” programme at the Krishibid Institution Bangladesh (KIB) auditorium in Farmgate, Dhaka. 

“Conspiracies have not stopped. If we do not unite for the welfare of the country, the country will be destroyed,” Tarique Rahman said, adding that democracy would be established through an election and that, therefore, an election “must be held at any cost.”

Terming the attack on Sharif Osman Bin Hadi, spokesperson of Inquilab Mancha and a prospective independent candidate for Dhaka-8, as “highly condemnable”, he said Hadi remained in critical condition while receiving treatment. 

He added that authorities should examine whether “anyone has any ill intention” behind the attack. 

He also referred to an earlier attack on a BNP worker in Chattogram, saying someone might be trying to gain advantage by engineering such incidents.

Criticising past governance, Tarique Rahman said the BNP would not run the country in the way he described as “Awami autocracy” in the past. 

He said the party had presented its “Plan to Build the Country” to bring change and deliver public welfare, adding that the BNP would implement it if elected.

Addressing party leaders and activists, Tarique Rahman urged them to engage directly with people, saying they must not remain idle. 

He added that a key responsibility now was to take every BNP plan to the public—and ensure those plans were implemented, not merely communicated.