BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday alleged that the government did not take any step for talks after October 29 as it is not willing to reach a compromise through dialogue.
“The Opposition Leader had requested the Prime Minister to invite her to dialogue with a fresh schedule after October 29, but the Prime Minister didn’t do it as they don’t want the dialogue,” he said.
Addressing a press conference at the BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan office in the morning after a secretary general-level meeting of the 18-party alliance, Fakhrul also alleged that the government is creating various negative dramas to destroy the dialogue atmosphere.
Opposing the telecast of the telephone conversation between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia, he said the conversation was illegally and immorally circulated through the media without the consent of the opposition leader. “It’s unlawful and against the basic rights. The government disclosed it with a motive to shut the path of dialogue.”
Fakhrul said the Prime Minister staged a drama by making the phone call to the opposition leader for talks. “The country’s 90 percent people want the election to be held under a non-party government, but the government is unilaterally going ahead for holding it under a partisan administration,” he alleged.
Accusing the government of scrapping the non-party caretaker government system disregarding the opinions and of the political parties and conscious citizens only to hang onto power for ever, he said the election must be held under a non-party government to protect democracy and people’s voting right.
He called for a 60-hour nationwide shutdown from Monday at the press conference and said they were forced to go for hartal as their popular demand for holding the election under a non-party administration went unheeded.
Criticising the government for what he said its growing repressive acts, the 18-party spokesmen said 20 opposition leaders and activists were killed and 6,000 others arrested during their previous 60-hour shutdown.
He also alleged that the government also implicated over one lakh opposition activists in ‘false’ cases.
BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, assistant office secretaries Abdul Latif Jony and Shamimur Rahman Shamim and senior leaders of the 18-party were present at the press conference.
Source: UNBConnect