Don’t put minorities at risk: Mirza Fakhrul urges govt

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has called on the interim government not to put the country’s minority communities in any kind of danger.

“I want to make it very clear to the government—especially to the law enforcement agencies—that we do not want to see you endangering or creating any problems for the members of our minority communities. I am saying this to you very explicitly today,” he said.

Mirza Fakhrul made these remarks at a press conference held at the BNP chairperson’s office in Gulshan, Dhaka on Monday afternoon.

BNP organised the event on the occasion of 50 members of the Sanatan faith’s Matua community joining the party.

Mirza Fakhrul said, “I receive many reports. Please, never harass people from this community. They are our members, our brothers. We are with them and will stand by them with all our strength.”

Welcoming the Matua community members who joined the BNP, the party’s secretary general said, “You can rest assured from now on—you are our friends, and we are with you.”

Calling for building a broader unity in post-July-uprising Bangladesh, he said, “Some outsiders—certain people, some countries, and some media outlets—are trying to spread false propaganda about Bangladesh. We want to change that perception.”

Recalling the past, the BNP secretary general said, “There have been many mistakes. Much blood has been shed in Bangladesh. There have been many divisions. We must come out of this.”

Mirza Fakhrul claimed that the BNP, based on the ideology of nationalism, is working to build a non-communal Bangladesh.

He further said, “Our chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, in 2016, announced a vision outlining how she wanted to see Bangladesh in 2030. Among her proposals was one to make Bangladesh a ‘rainbow state’—a state like a rainbow, where many colours blend together in harmony.”

Moderated by BNP joint secretary general Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Anee, BNP chairperson’s adviser and chairman of Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Welfare Front Bijon Kanti Sarkar, Hindu community leaders Somenath Dey, Kapil Krishna Mondal, Somen Saha, and Ramen Sarkar, president of Gopalganj Central Kalibari Puja Celebration Committee, spoke at the event.