Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Friday urged the government to take responsibilities for the families of the forced disappeared people.
“The interim government has to take an initiative to run investigations of the incidents of forced disappearance under the United Nations. At the same time, the state must take the responsibilities of the families of the forced disappeared people,” BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said while addressing a programme at Nayaplatan in the capital.
The BNP organised the programme, marking International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
The BNP has been claiming that many of its leaders and activists were forcibly disappeared during the last 15-year regime of Awami League government led by Sheikh Hasina.
Besides the leaders and activists, members of the victims’ families also attended the programme.
Mirza Fakhrul said the AL committed crimes against humanity by abusing the state power.
“Each incident of forced disappearance from 2009 must be investigated by the United Nations and the government has to take a move in this regard,” he said.
In a separate programme, BNP Vice Chairman Shamsuzzaman Dudu stressed the need for all-out resistance against the extortionists and miscreants as they try to create chaos in the country.
“The country is ours. Some masked men are creating chaos everywhere. They are trying to extort money. BNP has clearly called them miscreants…..no compromise should be made here,” he said while addressing a sit-in programme in the city.
Bangladesh Nagorik Odhikar Andolan organised the programme in front of the National Press Club to demand the withdrawal of the false cases against BNP ChairpersonKhaleda Zia and Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman.
Dudu said their leader Tarique Rahman asked for resisting the miscreants and handing them over to the police.
He said BNP has opposed these malefactors for 17 years, no matter whoever they are, for the interests of the people, the country, the economy and the politics.
“There is no way to support these miscreants. You will have to bring them to book wherever they are found,” he said.
Many pro-democratic persons not released yet:
The BNP leader said this interim government released BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia and the BNP also welcomed it.
But there are some 60 lakh accused in 2.5 lakh cases against leaders and activists of BNP and the opposition parties, including Begum Khaleda Zia, Tarique Rahman and Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, he said
“They fought for democracy. Many are still in jail...Some are in jail with life sentences and death sentences. They have not been released yet,” said Dudu.
He said the withdrawal of the cases and their release should be considered as a major task of the government as it assumed power to restore democracy in the country following the movement.
Some people fear voting:
In an oblique reference to Jamaat-e-Islami, he said some people and political parties fear to go to election due their poor performance in the past.
“There are some people and some parties who win 19 seats even if they are with us. If they are with Awami League leaving us, they get only three seats….. So, they will fear the vote. It is nothing unusual,” said Dudu.
BNP joint secretary general Khairul Kabir Khokan and it's training affairs secretary ABM Mosharraf Hossain, among others, spoke at the event.
Convenor of Nagorik Odhikar Andolan M Jahangir Alam presided over the programme moderated by its general secretary Mofazzel Hossain Hridoy.
