AL wants correction in EU statement
The ruling Awami League wants a correction in the statement made by the high representative of the European Union (EU) for foreign affairs and security policy Joseph Borrell recently regarding 'detention of 8,000 leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)'.
Speaking regarding this, the ruling party general secretary Obaidul Quader said such a statement was given due to lack of information. However, Bangladesh won’t condemn the statement as the EU is a forum of “Bangladesh’s friends”, he said.
Also road transport and bridges minister, Obaidul Quader said this during a briefing at the office of Dhaka district Awami League in the capital’s Tejgaon on Monday.
The ruling party general secretary said, “I saw today that the EU issued a statement demanding release of opposition activists saying some 8,000 of them are imprisoned now. The EU is a forum of our friends. I don’t want to condemn them. They lack information. Probably, Josep Borrell made the statements due to this information gap. Probably, he couldn’t deliver a proper statement due to this.”
Obaidul Quader further said, “Our home ministry has obviously provided the exact figure regarding the number of people arrested. Can’t anyone be arrested for attacking the police? Who will talk about this? We expect the EU to make any statement regarding this after proper inquiries and they will correct the statement. We don’t want any rift with the EU over this. We don’t want any fight in Bangladesh either. We only want a peaceful election.”
Addressing the police, the bridges minister said, “The home minister is a decent person. I want to tell him that it’s time to be on alert. The persons with the task to detain the miscreants, who set the buses on fire, mustn’t make any mistake. Innocent persons cannot be arrested by any means. Only the offenders deserve the punishment. This is all I wanted to say.”
Directing the party activists to be on ‘high alert’, Obaidul Quader said, “They have taken to the street with arms and fire. They want to wage a movement to oust the government through guerilla attacks. They are proceeding with this plan. So our leaders and activists should be on high alert.”
In response to another query from the newspersons, the bridges minister said that efforts are on to bring BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman back to the country.