Hasina warns Shamim Osman

Awami League chief and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has issued a stern warning to Narayanganj MP AKM Shamim Osman over the city corporation elections.

Shamim Osman, who has been openly vocal against Narayanganj Mayor Selina Hayat Ivy, received the telling-off at Tuesday’s meeting, several party leaders, who were present, confirmed bdnews24.com.

Hasina’s move against Osman, whose family has a huge contribution in the creation of the Awami League, has taken aback party leaders who attended the Ganabhaban meeting. Apart from Ivy, who has been nominated by the party to seek a second term, several other Narayanganj Awami League leaders, known to be loyal to Osman, attended it. In the last elections, which the BNP had boycotted, Ivy defeated Osman by over 100,000 votes to become the first female mayor in Bangladesh. The two have been carrying the legacy of the decades-old rivalry in local politics started by their fathers. Their feud came to a head after the killing of teenager Tanvir Ahmed Twaki and the sensational seven-murder.

Besides lambasting each other at public rallies, they had furiously spat at each other on live television, and they did it again on Tuesday in front of Hasina, according to those who were there. “You cannot even imagine what happened during yesterday’s meeting. “It was way more than what happened during the 2014 talk-show. (Hasina) had kept a lot of patience,” an AL leader, asking not to be named, told bdnews24.com. Amid sharp criticism after the Twaki murder and seven-murder, Hasina had stood beside the Osman family. Shamim Osman has been accused by many quarters of involvement in the Narayanganj killings.

During a session in Parliament two years ago, Hasina lauded the contributions of the family for the Awami League and her family since the party’s beginning and expressed her support for them. Shamim Osman’s grandfather Osman Ali was among the founding organisers of the Awami League. The first meeting leading to the formation of the Awami League was held at his home. His father AKM Shamsuddoha, a founder member, was a member of Bangladesh’s first Parliament. “It is our misfortune that this family has constantly come under attack. During the Ayub Khan-Yahya regime, during the Liberation War and after 1975, they came under attack. “Every government has tortured them in one way or another,” she had said in Parliament.

The Awami League chief had also said then the family was a victim of the ‘media propaganda’. Two senior party leaders, who were at the meeting, described Hasina’s attitude on Tuesday towards Shamim Osman as ‘astonishing.’ They said Hasina made it clear that those who will not toe the party line ‘do not need to remain’ in the Awami League.   She told Shamim Osman, ‘You can leave the party if you do not want to keep up with the discipline, but if you want to continue then you will have to do it’,” said one of the two senior leaders. Shamim Osman had been an activist of the party’s student affiliate. He was elected the vice president of the students’ union at the Tolaram College in Narayanganj. He made the headlines in 1996, when the Awami League was in power, after blocking the then Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia’s motorcade in Narayanganj, which was part of a road march by the BNP. Shamim Osman fled the country, after the BNP took office in 2001, fearing reprisal. He was then an MP and the general secretary of the local Awami League chapter. Ivy, whose father Ali Ahmed Chunka also was an Awami League leader, had returned from abroad and took the helm of the party’s local unit. Their feud broke out since 2009 after Shamim returned to the country. Party leaders, who were at the meeting said, at the very beginning Shamim levelled allegations against Ivy that she had criticised the party chief on several occasions. Hasina replied that she have kept those in her Cabinet, who had wanted to drop her from the party during the military-installed caretaker administration. An Awami League lawmaker, who was in the meeting, said Ivy defended all the allegations against her. “Amid the verbal attack by Shamim Osman and his loyal leaders, Ivy told the prime minister, ‘I will not contest in the polls. Please nominate Anwar Uncle (Narayanganj city AL chief Anwar Hossain).’ “That’s when Shamim Osman and his loyalists said, ‘Leader, then please let go of us’,” he told bdnews24.com. Hasina then stopped both of them and warned Shamim Osman against breaking the party discipline, according to those present at the meeting. bdnews24.com reached AL Joint General Secretary Mahbub-Ul Alam Hanif, who was at the meeting, for comment on the issue. “No-one has the option to fall foul of party discipline,” he said without taking any names. General Secretary Obaidul Quader had also made similar remarks after Tuesday’s meeting. “The party will think twice about those who will not maintain discipline,” he said while speaking to the media. On being asked by reporters at Narayanganj on Wednesday, Ivy said, “The leader has instructed us to work together.” Shamim Osman was not available for comment as he did not answer his phone. Source; bdnews24