Eminent citizens under a platform “Bangladesh Rukhe Darao” has called for immediate stop to political violence.
“Violence is in no way a political programme, rather it is a terrorist act which must be stopped,” said Professor Emeritus Anisuzzaman, president of the platform while speaking at a sit-in at the Central Shaheed Minar yesterday.
Expressing concerns over the attack on minority community and the deterioration of law and order situation, Anisuzzaman said: “We believe that any crisis can be resolved through talks and the parliamentary election would be peacefully held with participation of all political parties”.
Ain o Salish Kendra Executive Director and Convener of the platform, Sultana Kamal said: “All forms of political violence have to be stopped, and the political parties have to reach consensus through dialogue.”
“People have not given mandate to any quarter to play foul with lives of the people and state properties,” she said in her welcome speech at the sit-in programme, organised to protest the recent wave of political violence, which has taken heavy toll on human lives and properties.
Scores of people were killed and vehicles were set ablaze during the road, railway and waterways blockades, enforced by BNP-led 18-party alliance, demanding restoration of caretaker government system for holding national elections.
Citing the example of Nelson Mandela, who had never indulged in politics of violence and vengeance, she said each and every political party of the country should learn from South African former president Mandela, the anti-apartheid icon, who breathed his last Friday night.
“There can be no compromise with the anti-liberation forces and in the question of secularism,” Sultana Kamal said.
Senior journalist Abed Khan said a vested quarter, especially those, who worked against the liberation war in 1971, was still working against the people and democracy.
“We have to stand up against those evil forces, and Bangladesh Rukhe Darao has emerged with the spirit of liberation and communal harmony,” he said.
Meanwhile, litterateur Syed Shamsul Haque said what is happening, is not political movement, it is terrorism.
“People have to come out and stand up against these terrorist activities,” he said.
Expressing solidarity with the platform, President of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul said violence is now widely taking place in the name of politics.
Sarwar Ali, one of the conveners of Bangladesh Rukhe Darao announced that they would organise a mass rally participated by artists, litterateurs and intellectuals on December 14, on the occasion of Martyred Intellectuals Day.
“We will raise demand to ban politics of Jamaat-Shibir, we do not want this ban to be a strategy of election,” he said.
Professor of Economics at Dhaka University, MM Akash was also present at the sit-in, which was observed from 11am to 12pm at the Central Shaheed Minar on the campus.
Before starting the programme, eminent citizens stood in solemn for one minute to mourn the death of Nelson Mandela.
