Fakhrul claims govt instigated communal forces

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday accused the government of creating an unbecoming situation in the country by instigating communal forces.

“The government is carrying out a false campaign that we have supported Hefazat and fundamentalists, and we are instigating them from behind the scene to create a communal problem in the country,” he said.

“I would like to clearly say it is not BNP, but the government who has instigated them (Hefazat and fundamentalists), and created such a situation in the country,” he added.

Fakhrul made the remarks while speaking at a press conference at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office.

The BNP leader said Hefazat activists wanted to bring out a normal procession from Baitul Mukarram Mosque on Friday, but police attacked them at the north gate and “ruling party cadres” at the south gate of the mosque, leaving many people injured.

He said Hefazat activists were killed at Hathazari in Chittagong the same way police attacked a peaceful procession of the organization and opened fire on its activists.

Fakhrul said the government has opened a stigmatized chapter on Independence Day by shedding the blood of people in Dhaka, Chittagong and Brahmanbaria by unleashing law enforcement officials and Awami League cadres when the nation was celebrating the golden jubilee of independence.

He claimed their party tried to register its protest of the bloodletting and killing by holding protest rallies in the metropolitan cities on Monday in district towns on Tuesday, but police and ruling party men attacked BNP leaders and activists at different parts of the country.

Fakhrul condemned alleged police attacks on BNP leaders and workers during the party’s two-day peaceful program.

He said their party tried to peacefully hold their programs in protest of the killing of at least 15 people in the country over the last few days. “But our program has no relation with Hefazat.”

The BNP leader alleged that ruling party leaders and some media are trying to give their party’s program “a different colour” by involving it with Hefazat.