Saying no to ugly politics

Matin's father Abdul Malek, 55, was a farmer. A pious man all his life, he could not make it back home after attending the Biswa Ijtema, the second biggest religious congregation of the Muslims, held on the Turag in Tongi.

Malek was fatally burnt on his way as the truck carrying him and other devotees came under an arson attack by pro-blockaders on January 21. He died last week at the Rangpur Medical College Hospital.

Abdul Matin, 30, is president of Laxmichap union unit of Jatiyatabadi Matsyajibi Dal, a BNP-backed organisation. His father's death, however, has turned his life upside down, laying bare the true nature of our politics.

The atrocity that his party men have been inflicting on innocent people has made him turn around and retire from this politics of killing.

“I am attached to the politics of BNP but my father was killed by a petrol bomb hurled to make the party's ongoing blockade a success,” said Matin in chocked voice during the Qulkhwani of his father. 

"But I shall no more be involved with it or with any other party for that matter, as most of them promote politics of atrocity, bloodshed and killing to assume power," he said.

The brothers demanded exemplary punishment for those who had been involved in arson attacks on buses and trucks since the BNP-led 20-party's blockade began so that such heinous crimes would stop forever.