The recent arrests and jailing of senior BNP leaders are detrimental to the aim of restarting dialogue between the two country’s largest political parties.
While it is important that instigators and perpetrators behind the killings during the anti-government protests last December-January must be brought to justice, it remains unclear how this process is helped by the arrest and incarceration of Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain.
There is also reason to fear that this move may lead to new instability, which nobody wants.
As we have seen numerous times in recent years, the jailing of BNP leaders can give some of its activists an excuse to take to the streets, often with deadly results. Jailing senior leaders risks undoing the stability and goodwill that has been achieved this year.
The government has a duty to the public to ensure their safety, and this implies taking wise, constructive steps that act in everyone’s best interests.
With BNP having largely eschewed hartal/violence, and taking part in the upazila elections, it behooves the government to also take steps for reconciliation.
To this end, there needs to be some incentive for the BNP to toe the line, otherwise they will conclude that they are better off re-launching their violent programs.