German Ambassador to Dhaka Albrecht Conze feels that the 13-point demand put forward by Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh “is a challenge to secularism” and cooperation among all parties is required in order to face it.
“Is this not the sort of challenge to this country that requires some bipartisanship?” he told a discussion at the Goethe Institute yesterday.
Urging the secular forces in all the political parties to join hands, he said, “Please unite. Raise voices together now.” Bipartisanship at moments of national crisis is something that should be pursued further, Conze said.
Originating in Chittagong in 2010, Hefazat is a new force of Islamists that showed its muscle in April and is going to hold a besiege-Dhaka programme on May 5 to realise its demands, which include the enactment of an anti-blasphemy law.
Their leaders on different occasions have threatened to ouster the government and take over Bangabhaban, the president’s official residence, if their demands are not met before the May 5 programme. The prime minister at the cabinet meeting on
Monday defined what Hefazat is doing as “audacity”.
Over Hefazat’s demand to stop the free mixing of men and women, the ambassador said if the demands were met, then even the leaders of the two major political parties in the country would be impacted. “Two party leaders might not even be around if one follows the logic of the 13 points,” he observed.
About the violence against minority communities, he pointed out how distressed those communities have become. “They [victims] are more worried now than they have ever been in the history of your country.”