Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Sunday said that it would not participate even in any talks on the next national election before resignation of the present Awami League government.
“BNP will never join in any election under the Awami League government. I think there will be no talks until the Awami League government resigns. The Awami League would have to resign first, then the neutral government would form an Election Commission to hold a neutral national election to elect people’s government,”
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said it in a press conference at the party Chairperson’s Gulshan office in the capital.
“Our position about the next general election is clear. There is no question of holding an election if the Awami League government does not resign and power is not handed over to a neutral government. We won’t go to the polls, if Sheikh Hasina remains in power,” the BNP leader said it in reply to a query over the decision of the Awami League Central Working Committee meeting to make all-out efforts to bring BNP to the next parliamentary election.
“The government must meet two conditions to bring BNP to the next polls. The first condition is that they (government) must resign and then must hand over power to a neutral non-partisan government,” Mirza Alamgir said.
A non-party neutral government will reconstitute the Election Commission for conducting the polls based on public opinions and thus a government and parliament will be formed representing the country’s people, he added.
Mirza Fakhrul also condemned the ‘ruling party men’s attack on the BNP Standing Committee Senior Member Dr. Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain in Daudkndi upazila complex in Comilla on Saturday.
Replying to another query about Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader’s comment that the opposition parties would be given a scope to hold meetings and rallies, Fakhrul said Awami League is a party of ‘frauds’.
He said that the Awami League always claimed that they would not create any barrier for opposition parties’ programmes, but the reality was ‘just reverse’.
“This is the character of Awami League that they don’t keep their words. They have been deceiving people since the country’s independence,” the BNP leader said.
Mirza Fakhrul also criticised the government for hiking the price of soybean oil further.
He accused the government of protecting the interests of corrupt ruling party business syndicates by increasing essential products prices.
The BNP Secretary General seriously condemned the attack on the party’s Senior Standing Committee Member Dr. Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain at his home residence in Daudkandi of Comilla.
He alleged that Awami League ‘cadres’ attacked the house and Mosharraf’s companions with sticks, brickbats and batons.
“It was a physical attack on Dr Mosharraf. The attack was so intense that the party workers took Mosharraf to the house and closed the gate. Even then, the Awami cadres hurled brick chips and stones like rain towards the house”, Mirza Fakhrul said.
He (Dr. Mosharraf) is the senior leader of our standing committee. We consider the attack on him as an attack on our party. We cannot take it lightly, BNP Secretary General said.
“This attack has proved that there is no change in their character. Rather, they have resorted to extreme terrorism with fresh vigour to eliminate and suppress BNP and the opposition,” he said.
BNP Secretary General demanded the government arrest those involved in the attack on Moshharf’s house and bring them to justice.
