BNP briefs diplomats on anti-militancy platform plans
While explaining its plans to form a platform with political and social organisations for forging national unity against militancy and terrorism, BNP yesterday avoided a question from foreign diplomats on whether its alliance component Jamaat-e-Islami would be in it.
“We told them that it is nothing but an electoral tie with the Islamist party,” a BNP leader told The Daily Star following the meeting at Chairperson Khaleda Zia's Gulshan office.
Meeting sources said the diplomats comprised those from the USA, UK, Pakistan, Spain Norway, Australia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Indonesia and UN.
While coming out, Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told journalists that it was a routine meeting. Senior leader Goyeshwar Chandra Roy and Azzaduzzaman Ripon were present. When Khaleda called for the platform following the July 1 Gulshan attack, the government criticised it for having Jamaat. Pro-BNP professionals and intellectuals advised Khaleda to leave Jamaat out from the platform if it did not apologise to the nation for opposing Bangladesh's independence and the crimes it committed in 1971.
Comments