Terror tag motivated: BNP

A senior BNP leader on Saturday alleged the government was using the terror tag to defame the Opposition after what it said the eruption of the mass resistance against the government in several parts of the country.

”The government is trying to blame the opposition for terrorism at a time when they (the government) is torturing people using the state machinery,” Standing Committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said at the Shilpakala Academy.

“BNP never believes in terrorism”, he insisted.

Ruling Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbub-ul Alam Hanif on Friday castigated BNP for describing the recent attack on his party’s anti-shutdown procession in Chittagong’s Fatikchharhi as ‘mass resistance’.

Three people were killed in that attack on Apr 11 at Bhujpur in Fatikchharhi Upazila.

The Jamaat-e-Islami and Hifazat-e Islam supporters were said to be involved in the assault that was preceded by extensive rumour-mongering blaming the Awami Leaguer for attacking a mosque and kidnapping a popular local cleric.

The BNP later said that the attack on the ruling party procession was nothing but an outburst of popular grievances.

“They have said that incidents like Bhujpur will happen again. This cannot be the language of politics,” Hanif had said.

“Murder, attack, terrorism cannot be an act of politics. You [BNP] should leave politics and form a terrorist organisation. People do not want to see you all as politicians,” said Hanif.

BNP leader Hossain said; ”The government wants to stay in office using muscle power”.

He feared that more opposition leaders and activists could be arrested in future.

“We want tell the government… you will fail to stop the anti-government movements through such arrests. Please come back to the path of democracy”.