Ershad advises BNP to merge with his party

Former dictator HM Ershad has called on the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to merge with his Jatiya Party. ‘You leave Jamaat, come join my party. We are the true nationalists,’ he said, speaking at a rally in Feni on Saturday. The former military ruler questioned BNP’s capability of waging a movement. ‘This party is always issuing threats of uprising. I don’t see them doing anything anywhere. They don’t have the power to do it,’ the JP chairman said. Ershad, whose party is a major ally of the ruling Awami League and also plays the Opposition in Parliament, spoke about his own experience in such matters. ‘I was in jail for six years. There were 74 cases against me. But I never gave up,’ he said, according to bdnews24.com.