Addressing the inaugural session of Sylhet district AL council in the city, they alleged that the ruling BNP-Jamaat alliance is now involved in an 'election engineering' to cling to power by manipulating people's mandate in the next polls. They also did the same thing in the last election also, they claimed.

AL General Secretary Abdul Jalil inaugurated council held at the Hafij Complex in the city.

Central AL leaders including Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta, Dewan Farid Gazi, and AMA Muhit, Sultan Mohammad Mansur and Abdus Shahid, Sylhet City Corporation Mayor and city AL chief Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran, Samad Azad's son Azizus Samad Don, Joint Secretary of UK unit of AL Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury, Canada AL Chief Sarwar Ahmed, city AL General Secretary Misbah Uddin Siraj also addressed the inaugural session. District AL chief ANM Shafique was in the chair.

Abdul Jalil in his speech said, AL would not join the nest polls without the proposed reforms in the caretaker system. The opposition parties are united under the 14-party alliance and the government would not be able to lure them into participating in the next election without the proposed reforms, he said.

For strengthening the opposition alliance, the AL should also be more strengthened, he asserted.

The BNP-Jamat government has already ruined the country's judiciary and the administration and made the Jatiya Sangsad inoperative, Jalil said.

They have also strengthened the hands of anti-liberation and communal forces, he alleged.

Tofail Ahmed said if the government declines to accept the reform proposals, there should be a 'mass upsurge' in the country.

The Tuesday Group and 14 donor countries wanted to sit on the caretaker reforms issue, but the government refused on the plea of interference on internal affairs. In the past, foreign dignitaries discussed on the caretaker government issue in Bangladesh.

The ruling alliance is preparing to rig the next polls, he said, adding that they have already appointed 150 JCD men as election officers, Tofayel added.

The country had earned a good image abroad during AL rule. But foreign media has portrayed Bangladesh as a country of Islamist militants under the BNP-Jamat rule, Tofail said.

AL Advisory Committee member AMA Muhit said anti liberation forces are now out to jeopardise country's independence as the government has destroyed the spirits of the Liberation War. Greater unity of the peace loving forces can restore the country's image, he said.

There is no alternative to ousting this government, he said.

The inefficient State Minister for Home Affairs failed to probe any of the grenade and bomb attacks during the last four years, he added.

Other speakers said the BNP-Jamat government can not deny that it is the protector of militant fundamentalist forces. They should be ousted at any cost to save the country and its people, they said. any cost, they said.

The socalled Islamist militants, taking the government’s protection, are now threatening to explode more bombs in the country and create disorder.

The government must be responsible for all these as these destructive forces thrived under government’s protection.