Dhaka, April 18 (Agency) Highlighting the helplessness of family members of the missing persons, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Monday expressed concern over the current situation in Bangladesh, calling it “worse than during the liberation war of 1971”. Speaking during a discussion organised by BNP on the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of former BNP Organising Secretary and MP Ilias Ali at a hotel in the capital here, he said, “The situation is worse now than it was during the liberation war of 1971. “Now there is no war. Not fighting with any enemy. But today the youth are being disappeared. Their only crime, they want change. They want to say their words, they want to establish themselves,” he added.
Those present on the occasion included BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and Central leaders – Moin Khan, Nazrul Islam Khan and Amir Khasru, apart from Tahsina Rushdie Luna, wife of BNP leader Ilyas Ali and advisor to the BNP chairperson. Fakhrul said the government was making the youth disappear, in order to crush their protest against the Awami League’s ‘one-party and Bakshal regime’. He said even then (during Bangabandhu’s rule), there was one-party rule. The Awami League wants to establish a one-party system of governance by changing that strategy. Those who are creating obstacles here, it wants to eradicate them. Criticising the Awami League, Fakhrul said their only political objective was to stay in power forever. This was their old desire. They want Bangladesh to stay in power as long as it exists, he added. During the discussion, Rushdie said the government wanted to stage a drama after the disappearance of Ilyas Ali. There were posters on the wall with bad words written on them, but the people did not accept it. He said this government wanted to send a message to BNP leaders and workers by making them disappear. “If you move, if you talk, you will disappear,” he added.