Ban Ki-moon phones Hasina

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Friday expressed her hope that UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon would suggest the BNP to ‘return to the democratic politics shunning the path of terrorist and militant activities,’ reports United News of Bangladesh.
She made the request when the UN secretary general called her over phone in the afternoon.
Briefing reporters about the telephonic conversation, prime minister’s press secretary AKM Shameem Chowdhuri said the Ban Ki-moon phoned Sheikh Hasina at about 01:50pm and held talks for about 14 minutes.
He said the Hasina told the UN secretary general that BNP had created anarchy across the country over last three months since January 5, burning innocent people to death through hurling petrol bombs and arson attacks.
About the recent city corporation polls held in Dhaka and Chittagong, the prime minister said the common voters participated spontaneously in the polls and law enforcers played a very strong role in holding the election in a peaceful manner.
‘There happened not a single casualty in the polls which was rare in the history of Bangladesh in the past,’ Hasina was quoted by Shameem to have told Ban.
As a result, on average over 44 per cent voters exercised their franchise and the number of votes cast was not abnormal, Hasina said adding that there is no scope to raise any question over the fairness of voting.
She said that the Election Commission announced the results discarding 5 per cent of the votes over which there were some allegations.
Referring to the skipping of BNP from the polls on the election day, Sheikh Hasina said that their aim was to make the polls questionable.
She said that the people of Bangladesh hoped to see BNP returning to the path of democracy shunning violent and destructive activities.
The prime minister said the people of the country never liked BNP for petrol bombs attacks, and for destroying public and private properties.
That was why, BNP boycotted the city corporation polls in just three hours after voting had begun as its leadership realised that the sentiments of the voters were not in their favour, she said.
Hasina said the government was committed to ensuring that democracy would make progress uninterrupted as well as the security and safety of people.
During the conversation, Ban Ki-moon highly praised the government of for its continued and tireless efforts in consolidating democracy of Bangladesh, Shameem claimed.
Ban strongly criticised violence and subversive acts and said there was no place of such activities in democracy, claimed Shameem.
He expressed concern over BNP’s withdrawal from the election midway through, said Shameem.
Ban Ki-moon also said that the UN had been informed about some irregularities in the election.
The UN secretary general informed the prime minister that he gave responsibility to the assistant secretary General Oscar Farnadez Taranko of holding talks on the overall situation.