Sylhet AL blasts govt inaction

They also alleged that the ruling party men as well the government machinery tried to harass opposition leaders and activists by falsely implicating them in cases filed in connection with the attacks, in which a number of AL leaders and activists were also injured.

Former minister and elderly politician Dewan Farid Gazi MP, Sylhet City Corporation Mayor and city AL chief Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran, former lawmaker Syeda Zebunnesa Haque, District AL President ANM Shafique, District Bar Association President AKM Shibli and General Secretary Quazi

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Ashrafuddin Ahmed spoke among others at the press conference, held at Sylhet Press Club.

Sylhet city AL General Secretary Misbah Uddin Siraj, also a member of Bangladesh Bar Council, read out a written statement at the press conference.

They alleged that the ruling alliance has been trying to politically liquidate the opposition. Many opposition activists were arrested, tortured and thrown into jail, they alleged. But last of all nothing was found against them, they said.

Criticising activities of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and other law enforcing agencies, they said extra judicial killing can never be supported in any democratic society. Such killings violate the Consti-tution.

The ruling party men also tarnished the image of judicial service and the lawyers' community, they said.

Mayor Badar Uddin Kamran alleged that the government failed to take any punitive measure against the culprits involved in the bomb and grenade attacks in Sylhet region.

It also failed to ensure security at religious sites like the shrine of great Muslim saint Hajrat Shahjalal (RA) where there were repeated bomb and grenade attacks in a span of four months. Even, the administration failed to ensure security of the

British envoy. A police official was also among the dead while the injured included the Sylhet Deputy commissioner.

The ruling party people had repeatedly tried to implicate opposition men in those incidents one after another, the Mayor added.

"After the twin blasts at cinema halls on August 5, I got a death threat from an unidentified killer group. I filed a GD with Kotwali thana, but no action was taken", the Mayor said.

Two days later, I escaped for minutes the grenade attack on the AL meeting at Gulshan Centre, Kamran said.

He also mentioned the August 21 carnage at the AL meeting in Dhaka and the murder of front ranking AL leader SAMS Kibria in Habiganj and said all these were planned to crush the opposition, the mayor alleged.

"We feel no need to demand justice from the present government. We demand international probe into all the bomb and grenade attacks", Kamaran said.