DHAKA NEWS
The ruling Awami League and the main opposition BNP have adopted conflicting policies against each other. The AL has decided to counter the ongoing BNP agitation while the opposition is determined to oust the government at any cost.
The situation was very alarming and would increase turbulence in the country's politics, Akbar Ali Khan, former adviser to a caretaker government,
He said the AL and BNP stances might put the country into deep political turmoil.
The opposition's anti-government movement to press home its demand for the restoration of a non-party caretaker government to hold the next general elections acquired a momentum with the sudden disappearance of M Ilias Ali, one of the central leaders of the party, on April 17.
Ever since, the BNP has been accusing the government of being behind what it has called the forced disappearance while the government has been refuting it and terming the incident a planned drama by the main opposition.
The BNP has already enforced a countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal over a period of five days to mount pressure on the government to find Ilias. During the period, the nation witnessed the death of five people, with scores of people being injured together with a series of violence, vandalism and setting vehicles afire.
Frustrated with the agitation, the government has decided to handle the opposition with an iron hand. It is now obvious that the government and ruling party policymakers are in little mood to spare anyone in the BNP if they try to disrupt public life.
“The main opposition has been hurling threats at the government only to gain political benefits. BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia does not want Ilias Ali to be found,” AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam alleged yesterday while speaking at a party rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital.
If they [BNP] wanted Ilias, they definitely would have cooperated with the government, which they did not, he said while referring to the AL's appeal to the BNP to help the government in tracing Ilias.
Sources in the ruling party believe that had the government gone soft on the opposition, the BNP would have tried to derive advantage from it. They are of the opinion that the government has been trying its best to trace Ilias but the five days' hartal and violence have discouraged the government high-ups from working on the issue sincerely.
“How can we tolerate their [opposition] resorting to violence and vandalism when it is the government's responsibility to ensure people's safety and security?” Mahbubul Alam Hanif, AL joint general secretary,
He said the government had shown tolerance when the opposition observed peaceful programmes. “It [govt] cannot sit idle when they [opposition] vandalise vehicles and damage public property, business and houses. It just can't happen,” he added.
For their part, opposition policymakers think they have no way of retreating from their position after Ilias has gone missing and raids have been made and “false” charges brought against their senior leaders.
They say the only option they had was to go for tougher agitation, which of course including a series of hartals and blockades.
If the opposition had softened its stance over finding Ilias, the government would have more opposition leaders disappear to foil the anti-government movement and to weaken the party ahead of the next elections, according to senior BNP leaders.
Moudud Ahmed, a BNP standing committee member, said the opposition would go for an even stronger movement and there was no alternative to ousting the government to have its demands realised.
“There is no point of return now as all the issues have been created by the government and they must solve those,” Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman, another BNP standing committee member,
He alleged that the BNP had been forced to launch the movement as the government had caused the disappearance of Ilias Ali, filed false charges against senior BNP leaders and had not restored the caretaker government system.
Asked about the charges brought against the BNP leaders, Hanif, also a special assistant to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said, “It was he [BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir] who threatened to set the country ablaze if their leader was not traced. So it was obvious that the law enforcers would bring charges against him over the blasts and vandalism.”
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