The killing of Awami League (AL) lawmaker Ahsanullah Master has once again raised the spectre of violent political confrontation with Sheikh Hasina cutting short her US visit to announce fresh agitation programmes.
The party is now rethinking its decision for a return to parliament shelving street agitation for lire time being, which it had taken apparently being frustrated with the failure of the deadline, party sources said.
The AL is now highly likely to take
a tough line against the BNP-led coalition government after the assassination of its lawmaker.
Il has called countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal for today and more programmes will be declared after tomorrow when Hasina rejurns home, party sources hinted.
"We are already in touch with the party chief and have informed her of the latest development. Tough programmes would be declared after die return of the leader," said a senior AL lawmaker, asking for anonymity. "It's (MP's killing) part of a government plan to kill Awami League's leaders and more Awami League leaders will be killed according to this plan. (But) well not sit by after voicing our protest for one or two days," Saber Hossain Chowdhury, an organising secretary of the AL, told The Daily Star yesterday.
"The situation is getting more complex with every passing day because of the government's hostile attitude toward the opposition. We will no more allow the government to get away," said Saber, also the political secretary to the AL president.
"It's a question of existence for us," said one senior leader, wishing to remain unnamed, referring to Friday's killing in Tongi. He added that they find the killings of their leaders too much to bear with.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition in parliament Abdul Hamid Advocate said, "Situation is getting worse every day. The ruling BNP does not want to have a peaceful atmosphere in parliament and in the country... we are waiting for the parliamentary party meeting to discuss the issue."
Terming Friday's killing preplanned, General Secretary of Workers Party of Bangladesh Bimal Biswas said, "The government cannot shrink from taking responsibility (for the killing) by any means as it has involvement with criminals."
He underlined building 'a mass resistance' against political killings to put an end to this alarming trend. "Both the Awami League and left-leaning 11 parties should take a united stand against political killing," he said.
Political observers believe the latest political assassination has further widened the gap between the ruling coalition leader BNP and main oppositionAL.
Both parties are now trying to lay the blame for the killing on each other and the latest bout of blame game apparently has killed off any chance of hammering out a solution to the ongo-
ing stand-off in oroutside parliament.
The government in a press note on Friday blamed the murder of the opposition lawmaker on a conflict within the AL, a contention political parties, apart from the AL, and sociopolitical organisations dismissed as 'a farce'.
"It's a partisan press note to shift people's attention from the real killers backed by the government as we believe the government has involvement with it," Saber said.
"Such judgement of the government will influence investigation into the killing and the investigation will only reflect the government's judgement," he added.
Monjurul Ahsan Khan and Mujahidul Islam Selim, president and general secretary of Communist Party of Bangladesh, in a statement yesterday said the government has lost the moral right to remain in office after issuing such a farcical press note on the incident. "It is nothing but an attempt to save real killers and to mislead people," the statement said.