Govt influencing town polls: BNP

BNP will win the upcoming municipal polls if there is no vote fraud, claims a party leader.

Thakurgaon, Jan 8 (bdnews24.com) — Accusing the government of trying to influence the upcoming municipal elections, a senior BNP leader has claimed his party will win the polls if those are held without government influence.

Senior joint secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday also said they had long been demanding deployment of army so that no criminal or 'pro-government element' could create any obstacle to the voting.

However, the Election Commission has turned down the opposition demand for army deployment saying that troops will be posted in the municipalities that are vulnerable to violence.

"No election will be fair under the present government as it's influencing the elections across the country," he said.

Fakhrul was talking to reporters in a press conference arranged at his Thakurgaon residence protesting an attack on BNP supporters by the ruling Awami League activists on Friday evening in College Road area that left seven people, including a journalist, injured.

He criticised police for their inaction during the attack. "The attack was carried out in presence of police, but they didn't stop the miscreants."

Town BNP president Abdul Halim and other local leaders were present in the press conference.

The College Road ward BNP office was vandalised during the clash on Friday. The clash erupted as supporters of both the rival parties brought out motorcade processions as showdown in favour of their respective mayor candidates of the municipal elections.

In a violent reaction to the attack, BNP supporters later ransacked the Kalibari Road office of the ruling Awami League.

Sadar police chief Gopal Chakravarty on Friday said a television set and several chairs were damaged in the BNP office, and police were looking for the attackers.

Daily Kaler Kantha photojournalist Ali Ahsan Habib was seriously injured as he tried to take snaps of the attack.

Local journalists on Saturday demanded punishment of those who attacked their fellowman.

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