AL scared of polls sensing debacle: Khaleda

Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia on Thursday said the ruling Awami League does not want to leave power and hold elections, aware of the debacle they are facing. She said people have given them a small example of that in the recent city corporation elections, saying people would have given a fitting reply to the ruling party and stamped on their faces if the mayoral elections were held in a fair manner. Khaleda came up with the statements when briefly addressing an iftar party hosted by Islami Oikya Jote, a component of BNP-led alliance, at Hotel Purbani in the capital. She said every foreigner was now saying there is no democracy in Bangladesh and emphasizing on holding an inclusive election through quick discussions. She said the ruling party has committed so much corruption, plunder, theft, killing and enforced disappearance that it does not want to quit power and hold election in fear of trial and people’s wrath. Khaleda said the entire country has now turned into a prison. Ordinary people, political leaders and activists are regularly detained, she added. She said people did not get justice anymore following the politicisation of the judiciary. She said trials are now adjudicated based on who is Awami League, BNP or 20-party alliance, or other political parties. Leaders and activists of BNP and its allies, even those who did not commit any crime, has to die in jail, whereas the ruling Awami League men remain free, without arrest or jail, even when they disrespect Allah and the Prophet, she said. Khaleda alleged that Awami League men and police were involved in human trafficking abroad through sea. She said the people of Bangladesh have to die on foreign soil having become victims of human trafficking. Islami Oikya Jote chairman Abdul Latif Nezami and secretary general Mufti Foyezullah also spoke at the event. BNP-led alliance leaders, including Jatiya Party faction chairman Kazi Zafar Ahmed, Jamaat-e-Islami central working council member Aminul Islam, JAGPA president Shafiul Alam Prodhan, Kalyan Party chairman Syed M Ibrahim, Labour Party chairman Mustafizur Rahman Iran and National People’s Party faction chairman Fariduzzaman Farhad, BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan and Pakistan deputy high commissioner Samina Mehtab, among others, attended the iftar party. News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net