DHAKA: BNP Standing Committee member Dr Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain Sunday termed Bangladesh’s latest credit agreement with an Indian bank “unequal and disgraceful” for the country.

“The government signed the agreement with a private bank of India which is disgraceful for the independence and sovereignty of Bangladesh,” he said during a mass contact of the party at Kakrail crossing in the city to drum up BNP’s mass procession scheduled on Monday.  

The US$1 billion credit agreement was signed between the Economic Relations Division (ERD) of Bangladesh and the EXIM Bank of India on Saturday during Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s brief visit.

As the journalists told Mosharraf the fact that the Exim Bank was a state-owned bank, the BNP leader shrugged off.  

He said the people of the country would support BNP’s mass procession spontaneously.

Asked what they would do if the procession is obstructed, Mosharraf said, “A democratic government should not obstruct it.”

Opposition BNP has announced a mass procession in the capital on August 9 as part of its current anti-government movement.

BNP Chairperson and opposition leader Khaleda Zia will lead the mass procession that will begin from Paltan Maidan.

BDST: 1705 HRS, AUG 8, 2010