It's a political trick of govt

The BNP yesterday claimed that blogger Niladri Chattopadhyay Niloy was murdered “as part of a government's plot to gain political mileage”. 

BNP chairperson's adviser Khandker Mahbub Hossain said, “There was a plot behind the Niloy murder. They [the government] are trying to send a message to the world community that there are fundamentalists and militant groups in Bangladesh, and that the present government needs to stay in power to eliminate those forces.”

Addressing a discussion at the Jatiya Press Club, Mahbub, also president of Supreme Court Bar Association, further said, “I believe Niloy has been killed as part of a government's political trick.”

Meanwhile, BNP spokesperson Asaduzzaman Ripon, at a press conference at the party's Naya Paltan central office, said the ruling Awami League had been trying to portray Bangladesh as a country of militancy and fundamentalism for its “own interest”.

Replying to a query, Ripon, also BNP's international affairs secretary, said, “It is the government that has been publicising that Bangladesh is a fertile land for militancy.” He, however, did not elaborate.

Criticising the killing of Niloy, Ripon said such killing and brutality against children and women were taking place due to the ongoing “culture of impunity and the state of lawlessness” in the country.

“We want bloggers' freedom of writing as well as their freedom of expression. But we also want that no one hurts people's religious feelings in the name of freedom of writing,” Ripon added.

Niloy was hacked to death in his Goran home in the capital on Friday.

Mahbub, at the discussion, said the killings of bloggers took place one after another, but the mystery behind the incidents was yet to be unearthed. “How come the trial of any of these murders could not be held? That means the government is patronising the killers.”

BNP Vice-Chairman Abdullah Al Noman, at a programme in front of the Jatiya Press Club, said there was no rule of law in the country as criminals now think nothing will happen to them after committing crimes.

JAMAAT'S STATEMENT

Jamaat-e-Islami yesterday in a statement called blogger Niloy as Niloy Hossain.

Criticising the killing, Jamaat, a key ally of the BNP-led 20-party alliance, termed the killers of Niloy criminals.

In the release, the party mentioned his name four times and every time it was mentioned as Niloy Hossain.