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New hope for talks

PM tells Fakhrul to sit with Ashraf

Staff Correspondent
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday talked to BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in person and urged him to sit for a dialogue between the Awa mi League and BNP to end the political crisis.
"Please come. Let's sit and discuss. And let's hold the election together," Information Minister Hasanul Huq Inu quoted Hasina as saying to Fakhrul at Senakunja of Dhaka Cantonment.
The three were attending a programme marking the Armed Forces Day.
Seeing Fakhrul at the programme, Hasina went up to him and initiated the conversation.
She enquired why leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia had not come to the programme. To this, Fakhrul simply gave her a smile, said Inu, who was beside them during their conversation.
Pointing out that the BNP had not
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responded to her invitation for a dialogue at Gono Bhaban, Hasina renewed the call for talks.
Fakhrul, who was leading the BNP delegation to the function, then told the prime minister that his party preferred secretary general-level talks.
Acknowledging BNP's preference, Hasina asked Fakhrul to start talks with Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, said Inu.
Fakhrul then said he could not reach Ashraf when he needed to talk to him.
A smiling Hasina said the same happens to her as well. She urged Fakhrul to keep trying and that he would be able to reach Ashraf eventually.
Inu claimed that the BNP acting secretary general told the prime minister that the BNP was ready to sit with the government to talk if the government took the initiative for the dialogue.
The election should be held for the sake of constitutional continuation, Hasina said. "Let's carry out the imperatives within the constitutional guidelines," Inu quoted her telling Fakhrul.
When pressed for comments about their conversation, Fakhrul told journalists that the prime minister and he exchanged pleasantries.
However, BNP standing committee member ASM Hannan Shah, who was at the programme, told The Daily Star that he had heard the premier requesting Fakhrul to com-
municate with his counterpart in the Awami League to sit for a dialogue over the ongoing political stalemate.
"Even though I was not very close to them when the prime minister was talking to Fakhrul, but I could hear what she had asked our |acting| secretary general to do," he said.
He added, "We believe prime minister's request to Fakhrul is the outcome of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's November 19 request to the president to take steps for ending the ongoing crisis."
Meanwhile, Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, who also attended the programme, said, "The issue is in a delicate state. I can't say anything at this moment."
Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad said, "Now there is no scope for talks between the two chiefs [of Awami League and BNP|. Dialogue can be held at the secretary level."
The country might slip into chaos if the dialogue could not be held, Ershad said.
Asked why Khaleda was not at the Sena Kunja function, her security affairs adviser Maj Gen (retd) Fazle Elahi Akbor said the opposition leader was not well enough to attend the programme.
However, another former army official, reportedly very close to the BNP chief, said, "Due honour and respect was not accorded to her before when she went to Sena Kunja to attend the Armed Forces Day's function. That's why she was unwilling to attend this year's programme."