“I want to remind the Prime Minister that time is running out…there’s an importance of talks and negotiation in democracy. We think still there’s a scope for talks,” said BNP spokesman Shamsuzzaman Dudu.
He, however, warned the government that the opposition will realise their demand through a street movement if it refuses to sit for dialogue. “There will come a time when no dialogue will be needed, and the solution will be on the street, which you and your alliance will have to accept.”
Dudu, an adviser to the BNP chairperson, was addressing a press briefing at the party’s Nayapaltan central office.
He said the Prime Minister had showed the nation a light of hope by offering a dialogue to resolve the problem over caretaker government ahead of UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco’s visit to Bangladesh.
“But the government didn’t send any letter to the opposition in this regard despite their announcement to do so. We’d tried to sit in a dialogue putting many things behind. But the Prime Minster dashed the hope,” the BNP leader alleged.
Dudu criticised the government for rearresting senior BNP leaders at jail gates in false cases after their release from jails on bail.
Terming the government’s attitude very painful, he said the government is least bothered about court and law and the rules and regulations, and it has turned the country into a police state.
Pointing at the Prime Minister, the BNP leader said,” Your father had been put in jail in false cases. Moulana Bashani together with people had freed him through a movement of violence, torching and siege. We want to ask the Prime Minister, will we take up such programmes?”
Describing the ban on meetings and rallies as undemocratic and unconstitutional, he said Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the associate student body of BNP, brought out processions at different parts of the city defying the restriction.
The government will not be able to resist the political programmes through the ban, repression and arrest of the opposition leaders and activists, he added.
Sought comment about Hefajat-e-Islam secretary general Junaid Babunagari’s ‘confessional’ statement that the 18-party had patronised the Islamist group to oust the government, Dudu said, “Allah knows what he said before the magistrate in absence of newsmen and lawyers. In many cases we saw in the past the statement made under section 164 CrPC doesn’t exist finally.”