BNP will observe the 39th death anniversary of its founder and former President Ziaur Rahman on Saturday.

BNP and pro-BNP socio-political organisations have drawn up different programmes, including online discussion meetings, and distribution of food and clothes among the destitute, to mark the day.

Zia founded BNP in 1978. He was assassinated by some army officers at Chittagong Circuit House on May 30, 1981.

Born on January 19, 1936 in Bogura's Bagbari, Zia was a sector commander during the Liberation War.

On Wednesday, BNP announced a 12-day programme to observe the death anniversary.

The programmes will begin on May 30 and end on June 10. All of them will be held maintaining social distancing rules amid the coronavirus outbreak.

As part of the programmes, black flags will be hoisted and party flags kept at half-mast atop the party's offices, including its Nayapaltan headquarters, at 6am on Saturday.

Besides, only the party’s standing committee members will place wreaths at Zia's grave at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar at 11am the same day by maintaining social distance.

The party will arrange an online discussion in the afternoon in memory of Zia.

Read Also:BNP announcers 12-day programme for Zia's death anniversary

BNP and its associate bodies will arrange virtual discussions on Zia’s activities, from May 1 to June 10 as part of the death anniversary programmes.

The party leaders will also distribute relief materials and clothes among the destitute at different parts of the city on the day arranged by Dhaka North and South units of BNP.

The party leaders and activists will distribute the relief and clothes avoiding any mass gathering and public meeting.

BNP on Friday strongly opposed the government’s move to reopen the offices and resume public transport services, saying it will put the nation into a risk of serious outbreak of the coronavirus.

"Reopening the offices, courts and resuming the public transport services means embracing the messenger of death. When the government is supposed to enforce the lockdown and keep people at homes or in isolation, they’re opening the windows and doors inviting the corona fatalities,” said BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

He came up with comments at a virtual news briefing on Friday noon at BNP's Nayapaltan central office.

The BNP leader warned that the “relaxed way” the government is trying to control the deadly coronavirus will only invite danger for the country’s citizens.

With the withdrawal of the lockdown, he feared that the jails and Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar may become the hotspots for the virus transmission.

The BNP leader also alleged that the government is lifting the lockdown by ignoring the opinions of local and international experts only out of its obstinacy.

He said the destitute are crying out for help all around and many others are dying and passing through a tough time for lack of treatment.

Amid the virus outbreak, Rizvi said the government is arresting BNP leaders and activists in ‘false’ cases and enforcing their disappearance.

He said there is a spree of filing cases under the digital security act against those who talk about the government’s failure on social media in a bid to suppress people and their freedom of expression.

Rizvi said around 500 journalists and online activists have been arrested over the last two months only for expressing their different opinions against the government.

BNP on Thursday said the government’s decision of not extending the general holidays after May 30 amid the spike in coronavirus cases is suicidal.

“The government wants to prove that they’re stronger than coronavirus by lifting the so-called lockdown in the name of holidays. Millions of people have been made vulnerable to infection with the withdrawal of the holidays,” said BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

Speaking at a virtual press briefing at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office, he said: “This is the biggest suicidal decision of the government.”

The BNP leader warned that the government will have to take all the responsibilities for coronavirus fatalities following the withdrawal of the shutdown.

The government on Thursday issued a gazette notification regarding resumption of offices and the operation of public transports on a limited scale from May 31 to June 15 as the public holidays will end on May 30.

Also read: Transports, offices to resume from May 31

The government declared public holidays from March 26 by shutting down all non-essential services.

Rizvi said the government is relaxing the shutdown when it should have strictly enforced it and increased the testing capacity as the number of fresh cases and deaths are increasing alarmingly.

“The government is following a path which will only increase the deaths from the virus,” he said, adding that the government has failed to tackle the coronavirus situation because of irresponsible and unplanned moves and activities.

Also read: Govt should have enforced lockdown: Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Wednesday said the government made a mistake by announcing only general holidays from March 26 instead of enforcing a lockdown to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.

"Though we’ve repeatedly called for enforcing lockdown, the government announced general holidays which put people in holiday mood,” he said at an online press conference.

“The government made a blunder by not enforcing the lockdown and it has only deepened the coronavirus problem,” Fakhrul said.

He said it is not comprehensible why the government did not announce lockdown when other coronavirus-affected countries did so. "I think the reason behind it is their inexperience and indifference ... they (the govt) tried to mean that we don’t have any problem here.”

Bangladesh has so far recorded 38,292 coronavirus cases and 544 deaths. On Wednesday, the health authorities reported 1,541 new cases and 22 more deaths.

Also read: Coronavirus cases in Bangladesh surge to 38,292; 22 more die

The BNP leader said although the government enforced cluster lockdown in different areas of the country, it was not enough to tackle the situation.

"We think the infection of the virus would have been much less had the government properly implemented the lockdown at the initial stage. There’s now no village that has not been affected,” he observed.

Fakhrul said the extent of the spread of the virus could not be known due to the country’s poor testing capacity.

Stating that Bangladesh is a densely populated country, he said it will be difficult to tackle the coronavirus here without strictly enforcing lockdown.

Also read: Coronavirus: Govt not extending general holidays

The BNP leader also trashed ministers’ comments that BNP has been criticising instead of standing beside the poor and needy people, saying the ruling party leaders are not speaking the truth.

He said their party has so far provided around 1.25 crore people with relief materials.

Fakhrul said they are not criticising the government and are only trying to detect the flaws of the government so that it can take proper steps.

He bemoaned that though Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury’s institution Gonoshasthaya Kendra developed coronavirus testing kit, the government is yet to approve it.

Also read: Reveal performance study results of Gonoshasthaya’s kits: JOF

The BNP leader wished Dr Zafrullah a swift recovery from coronavirus.

He urged the government to immediately allow using Rapid Dot Blot kit developed by Gonoshasthaya Kendra after completion of its performance study.

BNP on Wednesday announced a 12-day programme to observe the 39th death anniversary of its founder and former president Ziaur Rahman.

The programmes will begin on May 30 and end on June 10. All of them will be held maintaining social distancing rules amid the coronavirus outbreak.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced the programmes at an online press conference.

Ziaur Rahman, who founded the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in 1978, was assassinated by a group of army officers at Chittagong Circuit House on May 30, 1981.

As part of the programmes, Fakhrul said black flags will be hoisted and party flags kept at half-mast atop the offices of the party, including its Nayapaltan headquarters, at 6am on May 30.

Besides, only the party’s standing committee members will place wreaths at Zia's grave at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar at 11am by maintaining social distance.

The party will arrange an online discussion in the afternoon in memory of Zia.

BNP and its associate bodies will arrange virtual discussions on Zia’s activities, from June 1 to June 10 as part of the death anniversary programmes.

The party leaders will also distribute relief materials and clothes among the destitute at different parts of the city on the day arranged by Dhaka North and South units of BNP.

Fakhrul asked party leaders and activists to distribute the relief and clothes avoiding any mass gathering and public meeting.

Also read: BNP observes Zia’s birth anniv; vows to ‘reinstate’ democracy