UNB, Dhaka :
Voicing utter dismay over the non-rescue of its missing leader M Ilias Ali in two years even after the Prime Minster’ s assurance, BNP on Thursday vowed to wage a united strong movement to “take revenge on the government for making him disappeared”.
“We’ve no option but to get united and wage a strong movement to take revenge on the government for making Ilias Ali disappeared and stop this menace,” said BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
He said they will initiate a democratic movement awaking people against the misdeeds of the current regime and force it to restore democracy, the rule of law and hold a fresh election for establishing a democratic government.
The BNP spokesman was addressing a discussion arranged by the party at the Institution Engineers, Bangladesh demanding that their missing leader Ilias Ali be traced.
Ilias, a former BNP MP from Biswanath of Sylhet, went missing in the capital on April 17, 2012 along with his car driver Ansar Ali.
Fakhrul claimed that the law enforcers ‘at the behest of government’ riding a ‘dreadful white microbus, picked up Ilias Ali two years back.
The same way they also made 22 Dhaka city BNP leaders disappeared in the last three months and 61 others across the country during the period.
Mentioning that people are being subjected to extrajudicial killing and forced disappearances regularly, the BNP leader said the government has turned the entire country into a killing ground.
He accused the government of committing serious crimes against humanity by resorting to forced disappearances. “Who is safe in the country when the husband of Syeda Rizwana Hasan, BNP leaders Ilias Ali and Chowdhury Alam have been made disappeared?” Fakhrul questioned.
He demanded the government immediately rescue the husband of Rizwana, the chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association (Bela). “We want to clearly know from the government the whereabouts of Rizwana’s husband Abu Bakar Siddique. The police force which can do everything promptly why can’t trace him and Ilias Ali!”
The country is likely passing the hardest time due to the misrule of the Awami League government, the BNP leader said the country’s law and order situation has deteriorated sharply as the current regime using police for its political interest.
Fakhrul alleged that the current regime ‘illegally’ assuming office through a ‘voter-less’ election is doing everything as per their whims.
He warned the government that no autocratic ruler could hang onto power by resorting to repressive acts, killing and forced disappearance. “We hope good sense prevail upon you to hold a fresh election soon shunning the repressive acts. Or else, you must face the dire consequences like that of other autocratic rulers.”
BNP vice chairman Sadeque Hossain Khoka, joint secretaries general Amanullah Aman, Mizanur Rahman Minu, chairperson’s adviser Shamsuzzaman Dudu and organising secretary Fazlul Haque Milon, among others, spoke at the programme.
