Eds: Lead to follow
Opposition BNP on Wednesday accused the government of misguiding people through its dialogue ‘game’ to frustrate the ongoing movement for arranging the national election under a non-party regime.
“The government is trying to create a confusion among leaders and activists of the 18-party through false statements and baseless propaganda about dialogue,” said BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
Addressing a press briefing at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office about the second day of the 18-party’s countrywide blockade, the BNP leader urged the media people to contact BNP about any information in this regard instead of resorting to rumours.
“We want to clearly state that the government won’t be able to frustrate our movement by spreading false propaganda,” he added.
The BNP leader claimed that the mass people have waged a strong movement across the country to foil the government’s plan to hold a unilateral election. “The movement now has turned decisive one despite the government’s repressive acts.”
The government is not considering the views and demands of the country’s mass people, eminent citizens, civil society members and knowledgeable people as it got desperate to hang onto power, he observed.
Mentioning that the country is now under ‘whimcracy’ instead of democracy, Rizvi said the Election Commission is playing a role of puppet in implementing the ‘whimcracy’.
“We think the current Election Commission has pushed the country towards instability and violence through announcing the schedule for a one-sided election. The announcement of the schedule without a political understanding has sparked massive protests allover the country,” he said.
The BNP leader also alleged that the Chief Election Commissioner has declared a war against the country’s people despite knowing its consequence.
Rizvi claimed that five opposition men were killed in firings and attacks by the law enforcers and ruling party cadres during the second day of the 18-party’s 48-hour blockade.
Besides, he said, police arrested over 400 opposition activists across the country during the hartal hours, while more than 1,200 were injured in attacks by law enforcers and ‘ruling party cadres’.
Over 5,000 opposition men were implicated in fresh ‘false’ cases, he further claimed.
Rizvi also announced to extend the 48-hour countrywide blockade to 6:00pm on Thursday protesting what he said killings of the opposition activists and repression on them during the two-day blockade programme.
On Sunday, the BNP-led 18-party alliance enforced a 48-hour rail-road-waterway blockade from 6am on Monday, protesting the announcement of the election schedule by Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad announced for the national election.
Rejecting the election schedule, the BNP-led 18-party demanded that the election schedule be suspended until there is a political consensus over the polls-time government.
Source: UNB Connect
