Government giving extremism free pass to destabilise country, alleges BNP

The government is trying to ‘create massive instability’ in the country by ‘not taking’ effective measures to stop the killings, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has alleged.

He says the Sheikh Hasina administration is only ‘trying to remain in power by creating disorder’.
 
“Hiding facts and intentionally refraining from going after the real perpetrators, the government is rather blaming the opposition and giving extremism free rein,” Fakhrul said at a press conference at the party’s Naya Paltan headquarters on Wednesday.
 
The media call was held to share the BNP’s take on the proposed Tk 3.41 trillion national budget for the 2016-17 fiscal. Finance Minister AMA Muhith presented the budget in Parliament on Jun 2.
 
Continuing on the recent killings, Fakhrul said, “We’ve seen in the newspapers that at least 48 people were killed in 18 days. This proves that the number of assassinations is on the rise.
 
“The government has failed both to control such incidents and to reveal the facts.”
 
Blaming the BNP and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami for the murders of secular writers and bloggers, online activists and members of various religious minorities in the past two years, the ruling Awami League has been saying that the attacks were targeted at destabilising the country.
 
Rejecting the accusations, Fakhrul said, “What the ministers have been saying proves that no effective action has been taken to probe the facts behind all these incidents.
 
“They are only blaming the opposition, which makes us fear that the government itself is attempting to destabilise the country based on these (killings).”
 
Demanding immediate arrest of the killers and their punishment, the BNP leader said the government no longer ‘cares’ about people’s security or welfare.

“Their (government) only goal is to stay in power at any cost.”