The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Monday sent letters to different foreign missions in Dhaka explaining that police and ruling party people were involved in attacks on the party’s grand rally at capital’s Naya Paltan on October 28.
Confirming the matter, BNP media cell convener Zahir Uddin Sawpon said that they, in letters to foreign missions, explained how the AL activists and members of the law enforcement agencies carried out a crackdown on BNP’s peaceful rally.
BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury sent the letters, he said.
The main opposition political party sent the letters on the day when the government briefed foreign diplomats and representatives stationed in Dhaka on violence during political rallies on October 28 and general strike enforced by the BNP and other opposition parties on October 29.
‘We are shocked at what unfolded on October 28 and yesterday. We are not, however, surprised as we experienced BNP-Jamaat’s dreadful violence in the past,’ said foreign minister AK Abdul Momen reading out a statement to the diplomats at state guesthouse Jamuna in the capital.
‘We reaffirm our government’s strong and unwavering stance to stick to the democratic process as mandated by the constitution and hold free, fair and credible elections in time,’ the minister in the statement said.
Momen later told reporters that the diplomats were conveyed the message that the government could only be changed through the election.
The developments came in the backdrop of October 28 violence between the leaders and activists of main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and members of the police and ruling Awami League centring the opposition’s grand rally in Dhaka.
The violence left two – a policeman and a Juba Dal activist – dead and over 1,000 injured. BNP called countywide hartal for the following day (October 29, 2023) protesting against attack on their grand rally.
On the following day, police arrested BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in a case of vandalising chief Justice’s official residence. Hundreds of BNP leaders and activists were arrested across the country since October 28.
BNP and their likeminded political parties and alliances are now on movement demanding resignation of the government, dissolving the parliament and holding the next general election, expected to be held in late December this year or in January 2024, under a neutral government.
New Age
