Though senior BNP leader Moudud Ahmed has lambasted the International Crimes Tribunal’s verdict of death penalty for party lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, the leading opposition is yet to formally react.
Ahmed told a pro-BNP lawyers forum that the verdict was a travesty of justice and the due process of law was not observed.
But when asked for a formal reaction, all that BNP joint general secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said was that ‘ the lawyers have already reacted to the verdict’.
“No decision has been made yet whether the party would comment on it. We will reveal it to the media if any decision is taken,” Rizvi said.
bdnews24.com chief political correspondent contacted seven BNP standing committee members over phone for their reactions. All of them declined to comment.
Some of them said on condition of anonymity said that party chief Khaleda Zia would come to her Gulshan office around 9pm Tuesday.
The senior leaders have been asked to be present there at that time and possibly it would then be decided how the party would formally reacted to the ICT verdict.
This is the first time a senior BNP leader has been sentenced by the war crimes tribunal.
All those sentenced by the tribunals previously belonged to Jamaat-e-Islami.
The BNP has so far not opposed the war crimes trials on principle but said the way they were functioning was ‘nothing but a farce’.
Source: Bd news24