Opposition leader and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Dr. Shafiqur Rahman delivered a sharp warning in parliament over continuing sabotage, bombings and a severe deterioration in law and order across the country. He said plainly that the opposition would not take the blame for any failure, and that if the government failed to keep the country and its people safe, the opposition would not sit idle.
He spoke on Tuesday, rising on a point of order during the session of the Jatiya Sangsad to voice his anger at the country’s overall security situation.
Opening with a picture of what he called a fragile security system, the leader of the opposition said that cocktail bombs were now going off even at the Army Golf Club. There had been blasts in front of the Special Branch headquarters and at police station gates, he said. Cocktail bombs had exploded at Dhaka University on three days in a row, and two people were injured there again today.
He also described the death of a young soldier while fighting armed groups in the hill tracts border area, unrest in Sajek Valley, an attack and arson on a police vehicle in Gopalganj, and a series of attacks on activists of both the ruling party and the opposition.
Questioning the inaction of the law enforcement agencies, Shafiqur Rahman said that despite layer upon layer of forces in the country, including the Border Guard Bangladesh, the police and Ansar battalions, there was no sign of arrests after so many acts of sabotage. Members of the public had caught a few suspects, he said, but the forces had shown no visible progress. “We clearly see the ministry responsible for law and order as ineffective,” he alleged.
Criticising the home minister’s silence, he said the minister had not made a statement in parliament of his own accord even as the situation worsened. Saying that the government and the home ministry could in no way escape responsibility for the state of the country, he demanded that the home minister immediately give the nation a clear account.
He also alleged that an unelected state minister from the ruling party had telephoned an opposition MP and spoken to him in a threatening tone. Separately, he said, an intelligence agency was pressing an opposition MP to leave Jamaat. “Does a member of an intelligence agency have that right? Are we going back to that dark era of 15 and a half years?” he asked.
Voicing fear that fascism could be rehabilitated, the Jamaat ameer warned: “The blood of our children is still fresh before our eyes. Fascism will not be allowed to return to Bangladesh over this spilled blood.”
He made clear that if the government could not do its duty in the present national crisis, the opposition would not take responsibility for it, and would, if necessary, carry out its own duty with the people beside it. But he also said the opposition stood ready to give the government its sincere and full cooperation if the government sought it to overcome the crisis.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report