Opposition men will again be targets of crossfire: BNP [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Opposition men will again be targets of crossfire: BNP

Local August 21, 2015

Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Thursday feared that the opposition men would again be victims of extrajudicial killing which the government terms ‘crossfire’.
The BNP spokesman, Aaduzzaman Ripon, at a news briefing at the party’s central office in the city, expressed his apprehension, citing the events of recent killings of Chhatra League and Juba League men in the ‘crossfire’.
‘Our fear is that after killing of two or four Awami League and Chhatra League
men, the turns will come for opposition men,’ Ripon said
He said as the government could not contain the runaway law and order situation, they want to panic people by ‘crossfire’.
Ripon said the events of such crossfire shot up in the country recently where the ruling party men themselves became fatal victims.
Referring to killing of a Chhatra League leader in ‘crossfire’ in the capital, he said Chhatra League and Awami League lawmaker Fazle Noor Tapos criticised such killing, saying, ‘it cannot be accepted’.
Citing another opinion about crossfire, transport minister and Awami League presidium member Obaidul Kader said that ‘action has started,’ Ripon said.
‘Indirectly,’ said he, ‘the minister admitted that the government was carrying out such crossfire.’
He said, ‘Action means crossfire.’
Ripon said crossfire is not any solution for the containment of such unlawfulness. ‘The government wanted to check the current worsening law and order situation by putting people in the crossfire, instead of using legal courses.
He asked the government to stop extrajudicial killings and take the path of rule of law.
The BNP leader said when BNP men were made victims to crossfire, they were branded as terrorists and when Awami League men were killed in the same manner, their men argued ‘it cannot be accepted’.
Ripon came down hard on the government for suspending BNP and opposition backed peoples’ representatives of local government bodies one after another.
He said on Wednesday the government suspended Gazipur City Corporation Mayor, MA Mannan, also the BNP chairperson’s adviser.
He said the government was disrespecting the peoples’ verdict.
While responding to a reporter, he said till last month, BNP-backed 538 mayors, chairmen, vice-chairmen and councilors of different tiers of local government were suspended.
BNP leaders Selima Rahman, Shamsuzzaman Dudu, Harun-or-Rashid, Khairul Kabir Khokon, Abdul Latif Jony, Asadul Karim Shahin, Shirin Sultana, Taqdir Hossain Jasim and Abdul Khaleq, among others, were present.