Dhaka: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is making dramatic pleas as the next election is approaching fast.

Addressing a discussion in the city marking 42nd martyrdom anniversary of Bangabandhu, the prime minister said BNP-Jamaat tried to destroy a nation in the name of movement to foil the 2014 election.

"Now BNP is making many pleas as the next general election is nearing fast," she said.

To foil the 2014 polls, she said, "They left no stone unturned . . . They committed the most heinous crime of burning people alive."

"BNP-Jamaat alliance, like Pakistanis, tortured the women, torched and occupied the houses of people," she said adding that "it's their politics, they cannot do welfare of the people, they can only torture people and destroy everything."

Dhaka South and North chapters of Bangladesh Awami League arranged the discussion at Bangabandhu International Conference Center. 

Urging the party workers to take a vow to build a hunger and poverty free Bangladesh, the prime minister said, "Building the dreamland of Bangabandhu is the best way to pay homage to him."

"Father of the Nation is not alive amongst us. But we have his ideology and with that ideology and principle we want to take forward the country," she said.

President of Dhaka South chapter Haji Abul Hasnat presided over the meeting while presidium members of the party Dr Abdur Razzak and Faruk Khan, central committee members Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya and Advocate Quamrul Islam and general secretary of Dhaka South chapter Shahe Alam Murad addressed the meeting among others. 

Criticizing BNP-Jamaat alliance for their destructive politics, the prime minister said, "Their character was best exposed in 2013 when they burnt thousands of copies of the holy Quran, set fire in mosques and killed Awami league leader Azam Khan when he was reading the holy Quran inside a mosque. 

"In the name of movement BNP-Jamaat in fact unleashed a movement of terrorists and militants. In three years from 2013 to 2015 they have killed as many as 500 people including 27 members of the law enforcement agencies, burnt about 3,500 people and destroyed 582 schools. Many families were destroyed and some of them are living on government support, she said.

The prime minister said in the name of foiling election in 2014, BNP-Jamaat hurled petrol bombs on innocent people, killed election officials though she tried her best to pursue BNP to take part in the polls and form an interim government on the basis of consensus.