Silence of police helped violence escalate: BNP

BNP on Sunday alleged that the recent sectarian violence in different parts of the country happened due to the indifference of law enforcers as they played a silent role during the attacks on temples and puja mandaps.

Speaking at a press conference at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office, party Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir also demanded an impartial investigation into the incidents of attack and vandalism at puja mandaps and temples across the country to put the real culprits under trial.

“Law enforcement agencies have played the role of silent spectators all along. These incidents have happened with government patronage,” he said.

The BNP leader also said their party thinks the incident at Nanua Dighipar in Cumilla would not have led to such brutal inhumanity had police acted swiftly.

He said the same thing happened in Noakhali’s Chaumuhani during attacks on temples as the administration did not take any action though they were requested repeatedly to do so. “There has been anarchy, looting and vandalism for six hours, but they (police) were silent.”

The BNP leader urged people to remain alert for maintaining the long lasting communal harmony in the country and foiling any plot to incite communal violence further.

“Awami League is carrying out these incidents by sacrificing and destroying all the achievements of the country. The government is trying to take the BNP’s struggle for democracy to a different direction by using its agents,” he observed.

Fakhrul said the motive behind such communal incidents is also to mislead people and divert their attention to a different direction from the growing price hike of essentials and other problems in the country.

“The government has indulged in a plot to gain political advantage by provoking sectarian violence, clashes and attacks, and pushing two religious communities towards confrontation instead of ensuring the security at the puja mandaps and temples following the allegation of the desecration of the Holy Quran,” he said.

Standing on the debris of democracy, Fakhrul said the government wants to get the good attention of the international community by playing the role of savior in the violent and turbulent situation after spreading the elements of communal conflict.

“But in the current age, nothing can be hushed up. It’s now clear to people that the anarchy that has been created across the country since the incident at Cumilla Puja Mandap is being implemented in accordance with the government blueprint,” he said.

The BNP leader said it is now a burning question who took the Holy Quran to the puja mandap. “I firmly believe no religious community in the country, except wicked persons associated with power, can do this nasty thing.”

He said the conspiratorial ugly task of desecration of the Holy Quran at Cumilla puja mandap was carried out with the backing of the government.

“The biggest probe of it is that though the Hindu community members asked the local administration to send law enforcers to temples and puja mandaps soon after the incident of (Quran desecration), they sent police much later,” he said.

The BNP leader said ministers and Awami League leaders have been trying to implicate BNP in the Cumilla incident since day one.

He also said cooked-up stories are being spread on social media to shift the blame for the incidents onto BNP leaders.

“About one lakh people had been hired to spread rumors in the name of BNP leaders on social media. The conversation that went viral in the name of BNP leader Amanullah Aman is untrue, fake, politically motivated and super edited one,” Fakhrul said.

BNP standing committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy said the communal incidents are being happened as part of a ‘game’ of the government.

He said the incident in Cumilla puja mandap was an outcome of a low-quality plan of the government.

Gayeshwar urged people of all religious communities and alem-uleam not to fall into the trap of the government by carrying out violence.

BNP vice-chairmen Barkatullah Bulu, Netai Roy Chowdhury and Dhaka north city unit convener Amanullah Aman, among others spoke at the press conference.

Source: United News of Bangladesh