BNP engaged in conspiracy to destroy peaceful environment of elections: Quader

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader today said Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is involved in conspiracy to destroy the fair and peaceful environment of elections. 

"BNP is not ready to test itself before the people and that's why the party fears to participate in elections, a democratic way to test public opinion. Because of election panic, they (BNP leaders) are indulged in plot to destroy the fair and peaceful environment of elections," he said in a statement.

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, said the BNP leaders are constantly making provocative statements after they failed to get people's response in their movement. They are lying in usual manner to gain their nefarious political interest, he added. 

He said the past history testifies that BNP always starts the politics of division by destroying communal harmony before any elections. 

The BNP will not be allowed to play this game of division in politics, Quader said, adding that the ruling AL along with all non-communal forces will face the BNP together.

The AL general secretary said Military Dictator Ziaur Rahman sent the country's democracy in exile after seizing the state power unconstitutionally and he presented a curfew-mark democracy before the nation. 

Under the martial law, Zia arranged 'Yes-No Vote' in 1977, the presidential polls in 1978 and the general elections in 1979, he said.

Later, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, wife of Zia, followed the footprints of her husband, Quader said, adding that in continuation of that, Khaleda held an election of farce on February 15 in 1996 aiming to grab the state power. 

He said the BNP chief stigmatised the national parliament by selecting a self-confessed killer of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the Opposition Leader of the House.

Against the backdrop of mass movement, the BNP was compelled to postpone elections in 2007 under 'General Closed Act-1897', he said.

Responding to a statement of BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Quader said Begum Zia stated that the AL would not be able to assume the state power in next 100 years but BNP secured only 29 seats in the 2008 general elections. 

The issue of confiscation of security money in elections proved the political bankruptcy of BNP, he added.

Urging BNP to join the next general elections, the AL general secretary said if BNP participates in the next elections, it will be understood who would have the security money in elections. 

He said the Awami League has traditionally had the non-communal policy and cherished it through its historical struggle, while "building non-communal state and social system is one of the pledges of our great Liberation War". 

Quader said the BNP and its allies have always perpetrated torture on minorities in a well-planned manner. 

They (BNP and its allies) are engaged in an evil attempt to make Bangladesh uninhabitable for minorities and dissidents, he said. 

After the 2001 elections, the road transport and bridges minister said, the BNP's terrorist forces carried out barbaric torture on the Hindu community in the country, reports BSS.