For Mobin, this is 'war'

For BNP leader Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury, the ongoing agitation is nothing short of 'war'.

News Deskbdnews24.com
Published : 4 Dec 2013, 05:17 AM
Updated : 4 Dec 2013, 07:39 AM

A war in which violence happens, even sabotage on rail tracks or hurling of bombs that burn people to death or defacement.

In an interview with BBC Bangla service on Tuesday, the BNP leader was asked by BBC journalist Qadir Kallol -- there is so much violence, fish plates are being dismantled on rail tracks, bombs are being hurled!

Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury shot back -- "Is this something new in Bangladesh? Has it not happened before?"

And then he went to pose a counter question.

"Does this not happen when there is a war? Don't you see the Western powers are killing so many innocent civilians in the war in Afghanistan? Don't you see children getting killed? Don't you see women getting killed?"

The BNP and its allies have been enforcing back-to-back transport blockades over the past fortnight.

This is to push for holding the next parliament polls under a non-party caretaker -- and not under an 'all-party' interim government installed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina which the BNP and its allies have refused to join.

BNP spokesperson Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has ruled out a dialogue with the Awami League and said their agitation will continue 'until victory'.
He said his party would not rest until the Hasina government is ousted from power and the Jan 5 parliament polls are postponed and then held under a non-party caretaker dispensation.
But the US, Canada, European Union, China and India have all urged the battling political alliances to resolve the deadlock by starting a dialogue without delay.
Indian foreign secretary Sujatha Singh starts her two-day visit to Bangladesh on Wednesday, just ahead of a four-day visit by UN assistant secretary-general Oscar Fernandez-Taranco that begins on Dec 6.
The purpose is same -- to get the rivals to start a dialogue and pave the way for a peaceful and inclusive election.