The Awami League central working committee in a meeting on Friday unanimously decided that the party or the government would neither accept the ‘illegal’ demands of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia nor hold dialogue with her.
‘She [Khaleda] will be arrested, if necessary, to put an end to the anarchy. But we would not accept her illegal demands,’ a central AL leader quoted prime minister Sheikh Hasina as having told the meeting.
Sheikh Hasina, also the AL president, was presiding over the AL CWC meeting at her official residence Ganabhaban on Friday night.
AL CWC member Khairuzzaman Chowdhury Liton told New Age that in the meeting the prime minister had instructed them to mobilise more and more people against the terror and anarchy unleashed by the BNP-led alliance and not to leave any space for the BNP and Jamaat men on the streets.
In her introductory speech, the prime minister iterated that her government would do whatever necessary to tackle the present situation and ensure security of the lives and property of people.
‘To tackle the situation, we need cooperation of the people from all strata of life, including the pro-liberation forces,’ she said.
As for demands from different quarters for a dialogue to resolve the crisis, Hasina asked whether those who were suggesting a dialogue with BNP would have agreed to do it themselves if they had been insulted the way she was insulted several times by Khaleda Zia.
The prime minister told the party leaders that public anger had already started boiling over against the atrocities of Khaleda Zia.
Awami League general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam told the meeting that the AL was not afraid of BNP’s movement.
‘The present movement of BNP and Jamaat is linked to the international militants and has been sponsored by them. So we must identify the sources of funds and how it is being used for this movement,’ a AL CWC member quoted Ashraf as saying.
He also told the meeting that they could not hold dialogue with the party which had unleashed terror in the country and was burning people to death.
Meeting sources said that the prime minister came down hard on Awami Ainjibi Parishad leaders, including former law minister Abdul Matin Khasru, and blamed them for AL-backed panel’s five times defeat in the Supreme Court Bar Association elections.
The prime minister told the meeting that she wanted elections to the two Dhaka city corporeations soon but before that two committees of Dhaka city Awami League would be formed.
In her introductory speech, Hasina urged her archrival Khaleda Zia to lift the blockade and hartals for the sake of 15 lakh students taking the Secondary School Certificate examinations.
‘Give it a pause. Do not destroy the future of our students…If necessary, you can start it [movement] after their examinations,’ she said.
Source: New Age
