BNP to avoid govt’s trap set up for five city polls: Fakhrul

Describing the Election Commission’s plan to hold elections to five city corporations by June this year as a trap of the government, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Monday said their party will not be lured into the plot.

“This time people and BNP won’t step into any trap of the government…we’ll overturn their trap,” he said while talking to reporters at a hospital in the city’s Rampura area.

The BNP leader also said their party has been on a movement with a clear stance that no parliamentary elections can be held under the current government and no election will be held without a caretaker government.”

Fakhrul also said BNP has not been participating in local body elections under the Awami League government for a long time.

He, however, parried journalists’ question about what action their party will take if its leaders take part in the city polls as independent candidates.

The Election Commission at a recent meeting decided to hold elections to five city corporations — Barishal, Gazipur, Khulna, Rajshahi, and Sylhet — between May 23 and June 29.

Fakhrul went to Delta Care Hospital to visit Natore Sadar Upazila BNP general secretary Abul Hossain who was critically injured in Natore’s Alaipur area by the ruling party activists while observing the party’s sit-in programme on Saturday last.

He said the Awami League government has become completely isolated from the country’s people. “If a fair election is held now under a neutral government, then you will see that Awami League won’t get even thirty seats. This is the reality.”

The BNP leader alleged that Awami League wants to hang onto power by resorting to terrorism, ‘false’ cases and using the state machinery to foil the opposition’s democratic programme.

He warned that there will be no national election in the country until the current regime steps down by handing over power to a non-party caretaker government.

Fakhrul said the ruling party ‘cadres’ swopped on Abul Hossain in Natore while observing BNP’s sit-in programme and brutally stabbed him in a bid to kill him. “In fact, he could have been killed if the police had not rescued him. They (AL cadres) tried to kill him.”

He said such terror attacks have repeatedly taken place in Natore. “They’ve created a reign of terror not only in Natore but also in Khulna, Habiganj, Jashore and across the country.”

The BNP leader said the ruling party ‘cadres’ with the help of police also attacked their party’s sit-in programme in different parts of the country, including in Dhaka, on Saturday.

“Awami League is basically a terrorist party and the current government has turned into completely a terrorist regime. The country’s people will give it a befitting reply through the movement,” he observed.