The BNP has cancelled several party programmes on the day following the execution of war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami, who was chief of its ally Jamaat-e-Islami.
A press briefing, to be held at the party’s Naya Paltan headquarters on Wednesday morning, was cancelled 45 minutes after it was announced on Tuesdaynight.
It was cancelled for ‘inevitable reasons’, assistant office secretary Shamimur Rahman Shamim told bdnews24.com.
“It’s not because of what you think, there are no other reasons behind this,” he said, alluding to Nizami’s execution.
Nizami was hanged at the Dhaka Central Jail at 12:10am Wednesday for war crimes during Bangladesh’s Liberation War.
He was a minister in the BNP-Jamaat coalition government that came to power in 2001.
Jamaat, the second largest party in the BNP-led 20-Party alliance, called for absentee funeral prayers for Nizami on Wednesday and a shutdown on Thursday.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was supposed to announce in the cancelled press briefing plans to observe the death anniversary of its founder Ziaur Rahman, several party leaders said.
Fakhrul had been invited as the chief guest at a discussion organised by its ally National Democratic Party (NDP) at Purana Paltan, but he did not attend.
A prayer meeting in the memory of late BNP leader Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu, scheduled at the Naya Paltan office, was also dropped.
“I came to join the prayers but it’s been cancelled,” said BNP’s Information and Research Secretary Habibur Rahman outside the party office.
The secretary general’s office was found closed in the afternoon. Office staffers watched television inside.
“None of the leaders have come here since morning,” said Rafik, an office staff. Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, who is at the office every day, was not there.
The BNP had been silent over the executions of war criminals and top Jamaat leaders Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla.
After the execution of war criminal Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, a BNP leader, Asaduzzaman Ripon said on the party’s behalf that ‘he was denied justice’.
Source: Bd news24
