‘Sakib came to me, but left getting no encouragement’: Hafiz

BNP vice-chairman Major (Retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed Bir Bikram has said Sakib (Al Hasan) had expressed his willingness to join politics visiting his residence, but left without receiving any encouragement from him.

“Sakib expressed his willingness to join politics coming to my residence, but he left without receiving any encouragement from me,” he said while addressing a press conference convened at his Banani residence in the capital on Tuesday (March 19).

Major (Retd) Hafiz convened the press conference to explain about joining the Bangladesh Nationalist Movement (BNM), known as ‘kings party’ and his position about the photograph with Sakib Al Hasan.

The BNP vice-chairman said many junior army officers contacted him to know about the background of the War of Liberation of 1971. “Two to three former senior army officials suggested me to float a new political party before the 12th parliamentary election held on January 7 last. Several persons from the government also thought that “I had become desperate to leave the BNP.”

Major (Retd) Hafiz said several former army officials had formed the BNM, and they requested him to join it. They also brought Sakib Al Hasan. “When they brought Sakib Al Hasan to me, I told him (Sakib) that doing politics is your personal affair. You’re still playing, try to think whether you intend to do politics or not. Then Sakib left without receiving any encouragement from me. This incident happened about four to five months before the election.”

“I have been too much shocked. This government has been doing various misdeeds. They held an dummy election unilaterally, but we don’t see anything else about it. Looting has been going on unabated in the country’s banking sector, but we don’t see any news report on it. Why Sagar-Runi murder has not been resolved? I don’t see any report on the abode issues in those newspapers which always criticise me,” he said.

The BNP vice-chairman said: “I think that an attempt has been made deliberately against me to create various imaginary stories in order to hide the various misdeeds of the government.”