BTRC set bad example ‘blocking’ Skype: BNP

BNP on Monday said Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has set a bad example by ‘blocking’ telecommunication application Skype across the country.

Speaking at a press conference at the party’s Nayapaltan central office, party senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi also said all the internet-based services have been shut down in their party chairperson’s Gulshan office so that their party acting chairman cannot talk to their party’s nomination seekers.

“We’ve got information that BTRC blocked the Skype service. The government regulated-body has set a disgusting example by blocking the Skype service. I have been informed from the Gulshan office that all the internet connections were stopped there,” he said.

The BNP leader said the government has taken the step after Election Commission secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed’s remarks that the Commission has “nothing to do” with BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman’s involvement in the nomination processes of the party.

He said the government’s move also exposed that the ruling party alliance will keep the field under its unilateral control. “The government has demonstrated its ‘low taste’ by hurriedly blocking Skype.”

Rizvi said the government is relentlessly using the state machinery to take the election results to its favour.

The BNP leader demanded the government immediately restore Skype service in the country.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has reportedly blocked telecommunication application Skype across the country.

Emdadul Haque, secretary general of Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB), told UNB that they have received a letter from the BTRC asking them to keep all kinds of communication from home and abroad via Skype suspended.

However, acting BTRC chairman Jahurul Haque said there was no instruction from the telecom regulator about blocking Skype.