BNP blames govt ‘hesitation’ in launching action for death toll in cafe hostage crisis

More lives may have been saved, feel people, had the government not taken a ‘delayed decision’ and launched a swift action instead at the Gulshan café taken over by gunmen on Friday night, the BNP has said.

BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said at a press conference on Wednesday that people believe there would have been fewer casualties in the overnight hostage crisis had the government not “hesitated” to tackle the situation head-on.
 
“People feel a swift action by the army would have saved many more,” he said.
 
Gunmen had taken at least 33 foreigners and Bangladeshis hostage at the Holey Artisan Bakery on the night of Jul 2.
 
The army launched a commando operation about 12 hours after the seizure and took control of the café in a lightning operation.
 
Thirteen hostages were rescued, while 20, including 17 foreign nationals, were found to have been killed by the terrorists.
 
The BNP's Senior Joint Secretary General Rizvi also criticised Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s decision to take part in the inauguration of a four-lane highway soon after the incident on Saturday morning.
 
“It would have been better if she had stayed away when the nation was passing through a traumatic moment.”
  
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Sunday called for a united fight, cutting across party and ideological line, against terrorism.
 
But Awami League leader Mahbub-ul Alam Hanif insisted that Khaleda must apologise and severe her ties with the Jamaat-e-Islami before any such united action could be considered.
 
Rizvi criticised the ruling party stand, saying a national consensus could not be arrived at based on conditions. “By placing conditions they (the ruling party) want to keep disunity alive.”
 
He also criticised a recent spurt in encounter deaths, which he described as extra-judicial killings.
 
“If killings in the name of gunfights were to continue, what is the justification in having a judiciary and civil administration?” he asked.​