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Imprisonment of Bigwigs, Filing of Cases

BNP’s soft stance frustrates Jamaat

Rakib Hasnet Suman
BNP's soft posture towards the recent political development, including sending of opposition bigwigs to jail, filing of cases against alliance leaders and disappear-
ance of Ilias Ali, has broadened its gap with Jamaat.
Jamaat-e-Islami, key component of the 18-party opposition alliance, expected tougher programmes like back-to-back
hartals, but Khaleda Zia, chairperson of the main opposition BNP, decided not to go for any drastic agitationrightnow.
BNP insiders said Khaleda was not interested to go for tougher movement before Ramadan, which would start from the third week of July.
They said despite pressure from the allies, BNP was
not likely to declare tougher movement from its June 11 rally. Opposition policymakers, however, want to show their political strength by ensuring huge gathering of supporters in the rally.
Jamaat and a few other alliance leaders had expressed dissatisfaction over BNP's go-soft strategy in an alliance meeting held at Khaleda's Gulshan office
after a daylong hartal on May 17. The previous day, BNP acting secretary general and 32 other opposition leaders had been sent to jail in an arson case.
Khaleda had told the meeting that they should not misuse their strength by declaring non-stop hartals before the June rally, but the argument did not make Jamaat men happy, said a senior BNP leader present in
the meeting.
Shafiqui Islam Masud, a member of Jamaat's highest policymaking body, Central Majlish-e-Surah, has recently said, "There is no resentment between us. But it is true that the grassroots-level workers and supporters expected something more against the government after Ilias Ali had gone missing and the imprisonment of top opposition leaders."
He said a true leadership needed to consider many things before announcing agitation programmes, but at the same time the government might increase the degree of repression if they [opposition] failed to mount pressure immediately through a tougher movement.
“We have conveyed the expectation of field-level workers in the meeting,” Masud continued, "BNP should overcome the hesitation about the so-called war crimes trial as it is nothing but a conspiracy to weaken the opposition.”
Asked about Jamaat's resentment, BNP standing committee member Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman said the two parties had their own strategies.
“BNP needs to consider many things before making any decision and that is why, all its decision cannot make everybody happy,” he said.
For the last couple of months, Khaleda Zia has been silent about the top Jamaat leaders who are facing war crimes trial. She did not even make any mention about them in the March 12 rally, added the BNP leaders.
The last time Khaleda categorically demanded release of the top Jamaat leaders was at a rally in Chapainawabganj last October.
A BNP vice-chairman, however, pointed out that Jamaat men were not found in the streets for the last few months, during different programmes, although they had been always mounting pressure in alliance meetings for declaring tougher programmes.
A number of Jamaat workers, who were present in a protest rally in front of BNP office recently, told The Daily Star, "Why was BNP silent when our top leaders were arrested in 2010? Had they been vocal then, the government could not have sent its acting secretary general to jail now.”
Asked about the crisis between BNP and Jamaat, Tariqul Islam, another member of BNP standing committee, said their chairperson always took decisions in consultation with all.
“We are passing through a bad patch; it's not the time to wrangle. Everyone now needs to work united to live through the government repression," he said.