Manzur was a freedom fighter in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and served as the Local Government and Rural Development Minister and Mayor of Dhaka City Corporation under the Ershad regime.

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami secretary-general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed objected to Manjur's remarks, saying his party would not support any move to hang Mujib's portrait at government offices.

Khaleda and other key leaders kept silent, but BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain stepped in to restore calm.

The party, on 7 April 2005 blasted the government and the BNP high-ups for harboring extremist elements and establishing an alternative power center at Hawa Bhaban.

Addressing an extended meeting of its central committee in the capital, the BJP leaders also came down heavily on the government for the price hike of essential commodities and deaths in the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) custody.

"BNP is patronising the fundamentalist and extremist forces in the country," Manjur told the meeting expressing serious concern over the growth of religious extremism.

The BJP leaders also criticised the opposition political parties for creating an anarchic situation in the country through national and international conspiracies.

Leaders of the BJP central committee and 56 district units spoke at the meeting and almost all of them expressed similar views about the coalition government's performances in the last three and a half years.

Advocate Abdul Halim from Sylhet said BNP has introduced a dual rule by the Prime Minister's Office and the Hawa Bhaban.