BNP demands immediate elections

The BNP has asked the government to call fresh general elections heeding the appeals made by Western countries, including the United States.

The party’s acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir voiced the demand at a discussion in the capital on Friday.

He said the government would not be able to cling to power for long “holding the nation at gunpoint”.

Fakhrul said: “The whole world including the US, UK, Canada and European Union have commented that the Jan 5 polls were not acceptable. They asked for a prompt election participated by all political parties.”

Bhasani Smriti Sangsad organised the discussion on the Language Movement at the National Press Club.

The BNP leader said: “Assuming office without polls, ministers are now roaring. They’re saying they would stay in power for five years.

“We would like to tell the government that whatever you’ve done has been done, now please take measures to hold a (fresh) election promptly.

Fakhrul also shed lights on the life of political icon Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani.

He said, “I don’t know if a leader like him is there on this soil. Bhasani himself was an institution. He himself is a history.”

The movement for returning to democracy has to be carried forward by imbibing Bhasaini’s ideology, he added.

Terming the current situation ‘grave’, he said: “We find resemblance of the 1972-75 situation with the present one. Bodies of youths used to be left on the street and opposition political leaders were subjected to enforced disappearance at that time.”

The BNP spokesperson claimed that Bangladesh was finding itself in a similar situation.

He further claimed that the media was also victim of government’s oppression.

“In 1972, Hakkatha Editor Ehsanul Bari was arrested. It was the first incident of arrest of any newspaper editor in independent Bangladesh.

“All the newspapers but four were closed down at the time after introduction of the one-party system.”

Fakhrul claimed that the Awami League-led government was following the past policy to control the media.

He referred to arrest of Amar Desh Acting Editor Mahmudur Rahman and knocking Diganta TV, Islamic TV and Channel 1 off the air.