Staff Reporter :BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia on Saturday called for national unity irrespective of political outlook to eliminate extremism from Bangladesh. “If the extremists cannot be eliminated immediately through united efforts, they would make peace, stability and security of the country far from the reality,” she said in a statement.The former prime minister condemned theGulshan restaurant holocaust that took place on Friday night to Saturday morning and claimed lives of 26 people, including 20 foreigners. She said that the storming of the Holey Artisan Bakery at Gulshan in Dhaka on Friday night by six to seven misguided gunmen raising their slogans was the outcome of the misrule prevailing in the country. “We urged, over and again, the government to take measures to root out the evil design of the extremists, who have no philosophy and no doctrine, before it was too late. But the government neglected our call and remained busy in targeting the BNP and the other opposition parties,” Khaleda said.The former prime minister alleged that the government helped flourish extremism by blaming the BNP and the other parties for any mishap whatsoever took place. Such attitude was dangerous and a threat to national harmony.She said, earlier the government operated countrywide crackdown only to oppress BNP men. “Their target was to oppress BNP only. They arrested around 16 thousand people in one week only. Of them, the number of the activists was four thousand. All of them were innocent. But the government did not arrest the militant activities. On Friday, miscreants killed a Hindu temple attendant at Jhenaidah. The same day night a group of the misguided gunmen attacked the Gulshan restaurant and killed innocent people. All these proved that the government’s crackdown was only to oppress the opposition political parties,” she added. She however, demanded necessary steps to maintain security in the diplomatic zone.
