Editors for talks to end impasse

Newspaper editors yesterday urged the government to resolve the ongoing political crisis through discussion.

In a view-exchange meeting with several ministers at the Secretariat's information ministry, they said the country should no longer go through this impasse that had rendered people helpless.

“We made it clear that we stand against violent activities....we don't want any chaos and we want peace,” Golam Sarwar, editor of the daily Samakal, told reporters after the meeting.

“This should come to an end. We've proposed that the government resolve it through discussion,” Sarwar, also president of Editors' Council, said.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said: “We all want peace in the country. We want this political impasse to end so that the country can move ahead smoothly.”

Yesterday's meeting came on the heels of Thursday's meeting in which cabinet members told high-ups of electronic media to show the real situation of the country and not to sensationalise incidents of violence.

As Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu sought editors' views about the current political crisis, they referred to Thursday's meeting where senior ministers had claimed that the country's situation was normal and there was no crisis in the country other than some "sporadic incidents of violence", meeting sources said.

Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud, Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan, Prime Minister's Information Adviser Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, State Minister for Labour and Manpower Mojibul Haq Chunnu, and Information Secretary Mortuza Ahmed, among others, were present at the meeting.