The ruling Awami League has said it will sit in a dialogue if the BNP accepts the responsibility of all arson deaths.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, following suggestions from international criminal groups, ordered the terrorists from her party and their partner Jamaat-e-Islami to create violence, the Awami League alleged.
“BNP and its major ally Jamaat do not know what their exact demand is. BNP has become a terrorist organisation because of its excessive dependence on Jamaat-e-Islami,” said Mahbub-ul Alam Hanif, joint general secretary of the ruling party, at a press conference in the city yesterday.
The press conference was arranged at their chief Sheikh Hasina’s Dhanmondi office to clarify the party’s stance regarding the prevailing political situation in the country.
A total of 69 people have been killed so far in arson on vehicles and crude bomb blasts around the country since the BNP-led 20-party alliance started enforcing non-stop transport blockade and intermittent hartals on January 6.
“The is no example in world history that a government ever fulfilled the demands of terrorist and militant groups. So, if we sit in a dialogue [with the BNP] at this moment, it will set a bad example,” Hanif said.
“BNP leaders say their party is not involved with the violence. If that is the case then why do you not withdraw the blockade and the hartal and let us find the people who are hurling petrol bombs. Then you can call your programmes again,” he proposed.
In reply to query, Hanif said: “We have not been able to control the violence because it is being created by men from the BNP-Jamaat alliance. The BNP is one of the biggest political parties in the country that enjoys 30-35% voter support and has millions of activists all over the country.”
He claimed that the government is capable of bringing the situation fully under control in just 24 hours if the BNP-Jamaat alliance withdrew their action programmes.
Regarding Dr Kamal Hossain’s call for a dialogue, Hanif said he was surprised to see that Kamal, one of the organisers of the Liberation War, has sided with forces sympathetic to collaborators such as British journalist David Bergman.
Meanwhile, police yesterday blocked a mob of the Sramik League, ruling party’s labour front, from laying siege to Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office. Later in the afternoon, the Sramik League brought out a procession in the adjacent areas.
Elsewhere, Awami League Publicity and Publication Secretary Hasan Mahmud, also a former minister, said the barbed wire fence put up around the Gulshan office would not be able to save her from the people’s wrath.