The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has expressed hope that the youth movement at Shahbagh Square would encompass the issues of ‘democracy’ and ‘corruption’ apart from their demand for death sentence to all war criminals. The BNP high command in a meeting with party chairperson Khaleda Zia in the chair at her Gulshan office on Monday night took stock of the situation arising from the Shahbagh Square uprising and discussed how the party should respond to it, a standing committee member told New Age.
The meeting that began at about 9:15pm lasted over three hours.
The meeting appreciated the initiative of the new generation but observed that they should raise voice also for ‘democracy’ and ‘against corruption’.
It also advised the organisers of the Shahbagh Square movement to be ‘careful’ so that a ‘certain political party’ could not cash in on their protests.
The meeting said that ‘partisan slogans’ were being raised at the Shahbagh rally and observed that the organisers of the movement should not be used as ‘pawns’ by that party.
The meeting also discussed Khaleda Zia’s planned public meeting at Rajbari on February 27.
BNP standing committee members, vice-chairmen, BNP chairperson’s advisers and other mid-level leaders attended the meeting.
Earlier on the day, BNP in a statement alleged that the government was conspiring to use the Shahbagh movement for holding the next general elections under a ‘partisan government’.
The BNP in a press statement said it was observing with concern that ‘certain quarters’ were making efforts to ‘politicise’ the demands of the youth at Shahbagh Square.
The party alleged that the ruling Awami League was hatching ‘plots’ by using state machinery to turn the strong emotions of the youth in favour of a ‘one-party’ regime.
It was BNP’s first press statement since the Shahbagh Square uprising erupted on February 5 after an International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Molla to life term imprisonment.
The statement signed by BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said that young people had been rallying at Shahbagh Square for the past few days demanding ‘trial’ of the accused of crimes against humanity.
The demands voiced by the youth ‘might be logical’, the statement read, adding that the BNP had been making ‘positive’ statements on the youth’s ‘emotion’.
But people have already become ‘conscious’ of the movement being misguided under a ‘plot’ of the government, the BNP claimed.
It alleged that intellectuals and organisations biased towards the AL and its associate organisations were burning copies of the daily Amar Desh, Naya Diganta and Sangram at Shahbagh and issuing threats of closing down the newspapers.
Besides, threats were issued to Amar Desh editor Mahmudur Rahman and intellectual Pias Karim, it said, adding that the incidents clearly echoed the rise of ‘one-party fascism’ in 1975.
The BNP thinks if the youths incorporate in their charter of demands issues like the government’s ‘silence’ on killings of Bangladeshi citizens, including Felani in border areas, holding trial of ‘anti-independence elements’ inside the AL and the cabinet, the Padma Bridge and capital market scams, and the Sonali Bank-Hallmark and Destiny scandals, their demands and movement will become ‘more acceptable’ and ‘meaningful’ and get a more ‘broad-based’ shape, the statement read.
The main opposition said if the issue of enforced disappearance of people, including BNP leader Ilias Ali, were incorporated in their demands, the Shahbagh movement would get a ‘national character’ irrespective of party and opinion.
It maintained that if the demand for restoring the provision for a non-party neutral caretaker government in the constitution was on the list of the youths’ demands, it would lend more meaning to the movement.
It said excepting the ruling party, people across the country irrespective of party, opinion, profession, and class raised their voice demanding reinstatement of the caretaker government system.
It said the youth should be alert so that they do not become a ‘pawn’ of those who had once established an ‘extreme form of fascism’ by killing 40,000 progressive political activists and freedom fighters, including Siraj Sikder.
The BNP alleged that a group of terrorists led by the AL-backed Bangladesh Chhatra League general secretary attacked Lucky Akhter at Shahbagh after an Awami League leader had been barred from mounting the stage and dubbed the incident as one of the ‘neo-BAKSAL attacks’.
Courtesy of New Age
