Law Minister Anisul Huq yesterday said the government would consider banning general strikes if the country’s people favoured such a move.
While defending BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s “confinement,” he hinted that the violent acts perpetrated by the BNP-Jamaat-led alliance during the hartal might be dealt with under the Anti-Terrorism Act, reports UNB.
The minister came up with the remarks during a meet-the-reporters programme at the Dhaka Reporter’s Unity of the capital.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently warned that the government would deal violence with iron hands.
Terming the BNP a terrorist organisation, Anisul binned any scope of dialogue with the “terrorists.”
Saying that it was not possible to force the government for dialogue at gunpoint or by bombings, the minister said: “They are committing terrorist activities on one side and urging for dialogue on the other...they cannot do it simultaneously.”
He also questioned the necessity of a dialogue. “An agenda is needed for sitting in a dialogue; what is their agenda?”
The minister said discussion with the BNP would only be possible if they came up with a constructive discussion proposal. “They have to stop the terrorist activities in the first place.”
The BNP and its allies did not take part in the January 5 election last year as they had been demanding poll under a non-party interim government. The alliance observed series of hartals and violent demonstrations ahead and on the day of election across the country resulting in the deaths of a number of people.
On the other hand, the government has been firm on holding election under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after the 15th Amendment to the constitution of June 2011 when the provision of caretaker government system had been revoked.
Responding to a question on the BNP chairperson’s “confinement,” he said 500 people would have died had she not been restricted in her office on January 5.
Khaleda has apparently been confined at her Gulshan office since January 3 when additional police members had been deployed outside limiting her movement.
The prime minister recently claimed that Khaleda was staging drama in the name of “confinement.”
Warning against the violent acts during hartal and blockade, she said: “Do not try our patience. I am strictly telling the BNP leader that nobody would be spared if they try to attack people again. They will be dealt with iron hands...The government will do whatever is necessary to protect the people.”
Claiming that the government did not block Khaleda’s political activities, he said: “What the BNP is doing in the name of blockade is not political activity; rather, it is a terrorist act.
“BNP organised rallies all over the country in the past, we did not bar their activities. But at present, it is committing terrorism so that they are not allowed to arrange rallies.”
Speaking about BNP’s Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman’s return to the country, the law minister said the government was taking initiatives to bring him back to the country as he was a “fugitive” in the Zia orphanage and charitable trust cases and the August 21 grenade attack cases.
Khaleda’s elder son Tarique has been in London since September 11, 2008 on medical grounds after securing parole in various cases. He faces 14 charges, of which four are on trial and the rest are stayed.
On January 7, the High Court has banned publishing, broadcasting or reproducing speeches, statements of Tarique in print, electronic and social media as long he is absconding. The move came after his continuous “derogatory” and “misleading” remarks about Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the prime minister and the history of Bangladesh’s Liberation War.
