PM’s press conference, BNP statement and some questions

Two recent remarks – one by our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the other by BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir – have generated a lot of interest and raised some questions too.

In the first instance, the PM, during her press conference yesterday, said BNP and Jamaat might have hands in the recent killings of foreigners. She also ruled out the presence of international militant outfit Islamic State in Bangladesh.

In the second instance, Fakhrul, responding to Hasina's claim, suggested that BNP should not be bracketed with Jamaat and said that the 'BNP had never encouraged such killings … Rather we had tried [when in power] every single incident'.  

How could the prime minister jump to such a conclusion even before the investigators finish their probe is incomprehensible. This may jeopardise investigation as the investigators' minds may now be influenced by her predisposition.  It also trivialises the process of crime probe and may erode the credibility of the process.

The prime minister definitely has deeper insight into whatever happening around. She might have evidence to substantiate her claims. But she did not disclose those, if any, thereby trivialising her statement.

If the last few elections are anything to go by, then BNP and Jamaat combined have over 34 percent votes. What kind of impression such a statement would create in the minds of the foreigners? Can we then blame Australia for cancelling the tour of its cricket team?

On the other hand, Mirza Fakhrul's statement is also reviled on the street. Does he think people have goldfish memory? Does he think we have forgotten how Jamaat and BNP went hand in hand to rule the country and also to wage violent movement against the government, burning and killing hundreds of people? Have we forgotten that top war criminals of Jamaat sat in the cabinet of the BNP-Jamaat alliance government? Both BNP and Jamaat harbour rightist ideologies.

The other claim in Fakhrul's statement – that it never encouraged killings and tried every single incident – cannot but be far from the truth. Have we all forgotten the numerous killings of top politicians including Ahsanullah Master and SAMS Kibria? Has amnesia erased our memory of August 21 grenade attack? Have we not seen how the BNP-Jamaat government tried to scuttle justice by inventing a petty thief named Joj Mia who, according to these two parties, had committed the grenade attack?

Such statements from high officeholders can only belittle our politics.