Staff Reporter :The BNP is worried over Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s comment regarding international pressure to admit the existence of Islamic State (IS) militants in the country. The party also expressed surprise over her (PM) rejection of the dialogue call of BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia. “The comments of the PM regarding the international pressure on her administration to admit the presence of IS in the country has worried the nation, as its consequence can be dire,” BNP’s spokesman Dr Asaduzzaman Ripon said on Sunday. Addressing a press conference at the party’s Nayapaltan central office in the city, he called upon the government to immediately build national unity to resist any militant activities in the country. He also criticised the PM for rejecting Khaleda Zia’s offer for holding a national dialogue.Ripon said, the call for a national dialogue is not their party’s weakness. However, the rejection of the call has surprised the countrymen. “The government must sit in talks and forge a national unity to save the country,” he observed. Hours before this briefing, the PM at a press conference on her recent Netherlands tour outright rejected the BNP chief’s proposal for dialogue, saying that she does not like to sit with a killer like Khaleda Zia. About IS’s existence, the PM said “There is a tremendous international pressure after some recent incidents to make us admit that there is a presence of IS here.”Reacting to the PM’s comment, Ripon said that it is a good luck of the government as their party chief has proposed for sitting with it even after the government carried out oppression on the party men. “Our party has called for talks in the interest of a national unity. But, the countrymen got surprised and frustrated as the head of the government reiterated her ministers’ remarks slamming our dialogue proposal,” he said. He said that the there is no scope for stubbornness when it comes to the country’s interest and democracy. So, they placed the dialogue offer. The BNP leader protested and condemned the PM’s remarks involving their party with violence and arson attacks. He claimed that their party had no link to any incident of violence and arson attacks. Claiming that the ruling party men carried arson attacks to shift the blame on their party, he renewed BNP’s call for an investigation into the incidents under the United Nations.
