Cases and attacks cannot suppress the National Citizen Party’s (NCP) movement, its chief organizer, Nasiruddin Patwari, has said. “If they take me to jail, I will go to jail; if they kill me, I will go to the grave. People fear, and we fear too. But we will not quit politics out of fear,” he said.
He spoke to reporters at the Sylhet Circuit House on Friday afternoon before joining a march and rally in Companiganj upazila as part of the NCP’s “July Awakening to Build the Country” program.
A case filed over an attack on NCP leaders and activists in Habiganj named Patwari, northern chief organizer Sarjis Alam and seven others, along with about 50 unidentified people. Responding to questions about it, Patwari said the NCP was carrying out normal political activity that could not be stopped by cases or attacks. The allegations have not been tested in court.
Calling the case politically motivated, Patwari said allegations in it — including attack, harassment and snatching — had no basis. “I have seen the cases. They say we attacked, harassed and snatched. How true these are, the people of the country have seen with their own eyes,” he said.
He alleged the cases were being filed on the orders of Tareque Rahman. “If their new government wants to do the politics of case-mongering, tender-mongering, corruption and terror, let them. But one day this too will end,” he said. He also alleged a “gang culture” was being established in politics.
On an allegation that an iPhone was snatched, he said mockingly: “They say an iPhone was snatched. Was it GK Gous’s iPhone or Tareque Rahman’s? Such an allegation is deeply shameful.” He went on to make sweeping allegations against several BNP figures, claiming a “gang” collected extortion money and deposited it at an office in Gulshan, and said, “We strongly condemn this.” The people he named could not immediately be reached for comment, and no legal cases substantiate the allegations.
Asked whether a counter-case had been filed, Patwari said: “We were attacked. We filed a case over it. Then they filed a counter-case. That is all.” He repeated that neither cases nor attacks would stop the movement.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report