Govt inaction proves its blueprint to crush AL

The alliance government could not make any headway in probe into any of the incidents but harassed opposition leaders and activists by falsely implicating them in cases.

A number of AL men and a police official were killed while the British High Commissioner in Bangladesh was injured in the attacks, speakers at the meeting said.

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Sylhet city AL Publicity Secretary Mohammad Ibrahim was killed and 50 others were injured in a grenade attack, made minutes after a party meeting ended at Gulshan Centre on August 7.

Sylhet City Corporation Mayor and city AL President Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran chaired the rally, held at the City Point. It was addressed by, among others Opposition Whip Abdus Shahid, Suranjit Sengupta MP, AMA Muhit, former lawmaker Sultan Mohammad Mansur, district AL president ANM Shafique, Nurul Islam Nahid, Syeda Zebunnesa Haque and city AL General Secretary Misbahuddin Siraj.

The speakers alleged that bomb attacks on Awami League rallies and leaders prove that the ruling alliance is out to crush the opposition.

Many party men including front ranking leaders SAMS Kibria and Ivy Rahman have been killed and many others are now behind bars in false cases. But AL is getting stronger with public support day by day, they said. The government could not prove a single allegation against any of the AL men falsely implicated in the cases, they said.

Rather, BNP supporters' involvement has been proved in Kibria murder, they claimed.

Whip Abdus Shahid said the government also failed to ensure security of religious places like the shrine of Hajrat Shahjalal (RA). Several incidents of bomb and grenade blast took place in the shrine in recent years.

The Whip said the administration also failed to ensure security of the British envoy but later tried to implicate opposition men in the incident, he added.

The August 21 carnage that claimed life of a number of AL leaders including Ivy Rahman in the capital and the murder of Kibria and four others in Habiganj are part of a plan to eliminate AL leaders, he alleged.

Suranjit Sengupta said, ruling BNP should now concentrate to 'keep its house in order'.

“Saifur Rahman's house is in flames which will not be extinguished soon. It will spread".

Suranjit reiterated his party's allegation that Law Minister Moudud Ahmed and State Minister for Home Lutfuzzaman Babar made gross irregularities in freeing BNP cadre Jhintu from a double murder case. "Whatever they say now is not acceptable as per law", the veteran AL leader said.

He claimed that BNP is not accepting proposals for caretaker and electoral reforms because it knows these will bring its "sure defeat" in the next parliamentary election.

"We will compel them to accept the reform proposals", he asserted.

He alleged that the alliance government is playing a mysterious role in probe into the grenade and bomb attack incidents because "its Taleban Bahini" is behind all these, done with a motive to crush the opposition.

Criticising the activities of Rab, Cobra, Cheetah and other law enforcing agencies, he said extra judicial killing can never be supported in any democratic society. It is violation of Constitution and law.

AMA Muhit said, a fundamentalist militant group blessed by BNP and the administration is active in Sylhet region. It was involved in all the attacks but the government never tried sincerely to nab its members.