The secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party has said the country can never be safe in the hands of those who opposed its 1971 war of independence.

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the remarks on Saturday while addressing supporters in the Thakurgaon-1 constituency.

During the outreach, Mirza Fakhrul said, “Another party has entered the race whose election symbol is ‘the scales’. They didn’t support the Liberation War in 1971. They killed many people and violated the honour of mothers and sisters. They have still not apologised.”

With national elections on February 12, Fakhrul urged voters to choose carefully, dismissing claims that voting for certain parties would guarantee passage to heaven as “trickery and deception”.

He said the past decade–and–a–half had brought widespread damage to the economy and banking sector through “looting”, and argued that recovering stolen wealth and driving development required electing the “right people”.

Outlining campaign pledges, the BNP leader said that if the party returned to power it would waive both principal and interest on agricultural loans up to BDT 10,000, free mothers from the burden of microfinance NGO debt, and create jobs for 10 million educated unemployed people within 18 months. He attributed the pledges to plans set out by BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman.

In a personal appeal, Fakhrul pointed to his long ties to the area and his political record, saying no one could accuse him of corruption during his time as a minister. He said this would be his final election contest and urged voters to back him under the BNP’s sheaf of paddy symbol.