Sunday, April 29, 2012

Shutdowns cannot unseat govt: Hanif

Opposition BNP's dream to oust the government through agitation and shutdown will never come true, ruling Awami League's joint general secretary Mahbub-ul Alam Hanif said on Sunday.

He also asked the opposition to leave the idea of enforcing programmes like general strikes while talking to reporters in front of the party's central office at the capital's Bangabandhu Avenue.  "BNP has enforced the hartal to overthrow the government in order to thwart the trials of the war criminals and of the opposition chief and her sons charged for corruption," Hanif said.  The opposition is enforcing two consecutive dawn-to-dusk countrywide shutdowns on Sunday and Monday protesting the alleged 'abduction' of BNP's one of the organising secretaries M Ilias Ali and demanding his immediate 'release'.  Ilias, also the BNP's Sylhet chapter chief, went missing along with his driver Ansar Ali past midnight on Apr 17 from the capital's Mohakhali area. Both of them are missing since then.

BNP also enforced three consecutive countrywide dawn-to-dusk strike on Apr 22, 23 and 24 and a day-long shutdown in four Sylhet districts on Apr 20 over the same issue.  AL's joint secretary general on Sunday again sought the opposition's support to find Ilias.

"We thought BNP would refrain from enforcing shutdown for the sake of HSC examinees," said Hanif, who is also a special assistant to prime minister Sheikh Hasina.  Describing that Awami League did not believe in confrontational politics, he said, "We have told our activists to stay beside the people."  He also said that Ilias' disappearance might have a link with the factional dispute in the Sylhet chapter of BNP.  When reporters drew his attention to a report published by an international media that politics in Bangladesh was moving towards 'confrontation', Hanif said, "Politics in Bangladesh was always confrontational. All opposition parties vehemently oppose the ruling party."

Awami League leaders and activists on Sunday gathered at the party central office at Bangabandhu Avenue amid the hartal enforced by BNP. 

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