Mahfuz Abdullah: My statement to Reuters misquoted

Mahfuz Abdullah, the coordinator of the Liaison Committee set up to assist the interim government, said his statement to Reuters was misinterpreted.

The forming of the political party was not mentioned, he said.

After the news of the opening of a new political party was published in the international media Reuters on Friday, he said these things in a post on his Facebook profile through social media.

"My statement has been misquoted in the Reuters report. Bangladeshi media have published a poor or 'intentional' translation of the statement," said Mahfuj, who has been named as Mahfuj Alam by Reuters.

Nahid Islam, the coordinator of the anti-discrimination student movement, also said that no decision has been taken on forming a new political party.

• Student protesters aim to form a new political party to strenthen revolution

Mahfuz Abdullah wrote: “My statement in Reuters was that we are not thinking about political party now. We are working for the abolition of the fascist system and a new political settlement. Our primary goal is to retain the spirit of mass uprising and consolidate the government. We will also work on the outline of the future of Bangladesh by talking to various stakeholders of the state and society. This work will take at least one month. And Reuters also wrote that after a month it will be determined whether we will form a party or not! But Reuters made a mistake, they used the word voters instead of citizens. But we have hardly talked about electoral politics. I have written to Krishna Kaushik, he may edit it.”

When the reporter of Reuters repeatedly asked about the two-party structure and whether to form a political party to get rid of it, he said: "I said, we are not a party or an individual, we want to reform the system."

“So that whichever party comes, it has to be accountable to the people. But it was said as if I wanted minus two, which is certainly not my intention. Our aim now is to direct the political struggle towards constructive action with concrete objectives. At the appropriate time, everyone will know what the political structure will be.”