Hasnat at Longmarch Rally in Jessore: If Government Starts Crossfire, No BNP Man Will Be Found

National Citizen Party (NCP) chief organiser (southern region) and MP Hasnat Abdullah has said that if the government starts crossfire, not a single BNP person will be found. He made the remarks on Saturday evening at a wayside rally of the 11-party unity longmarch in Jessore.

Hasnat Abdullah spoke on Saturday (31 October) evening at the wayside rally of the 11-party unity's Dhaka-Khulna-Jessore-Jhenaidah-Kushtia longmarch at Murli Mor in Jessore town.

He said, 'Tarique Rahman has been put in a vehicle without fitness. The Awami League has destroyed the engine of the vehicle called Bangladesh. So Bangladesh cannot run properly without state reform.'

Addressing the government, Hasnat Abdullah said, 'BNP government, if you start giving crossfire, then not a single person of your party will be found. Because to give crossfire you will have to give it to extortionists, to tender manipulators. Those who take extortion from business establishments, those who take bribes in the name of jobs, will have to be given crossfire. And when the police give this crossfire, they will have to give it to people of your own party.'

He also said, 'It is true that not everyone in BNP does extortion, and it is equally true that everyone who does extortion is BNP.'

Noting that an atmosphere of insecurity has recently been created in the country, Hasnat Abdullah said, 'Today I have come to speak before you in such a situation, we have seen an atmosphere of insecurity prevailing in every corner of Bangladesh. Where we have no right to be upset, where we talk about insecurity, talk about security, then we see the BNP government forcibly picking people up from their homes with police.'

Mentioning that a woman entrepreneur named Sathi Akter in Mymensingh was picked up from her home by police, he said the woman had said she had made a mistake by voting for BNP. She said she should not have voted for BNP. After she gave this statement on Facebook Live, police arrested her from her home. He said, 'We are speaking at a time when, if we protest, the IGP threatens us with crossfire.'

Hasnat Abdullah also criticised the government over the employment crisis. He said, 'After finishing studies at university, boys have to go from house to house in hope of a job, return from door to door, but there are no jobs. We saw the government propagate a kind of false information after returning from Japan. Japan would supposedly arrange employment for one lakh people. But the Japanese government said no such agreement had been made with them.'

Alleging that similar statements were made about the Malaysia visit, he said, 'After returning from Malaysia it was said two lakh jobs would be created. But Malaysia said no such agreement had been made. The people of the country want rice, want employment, want to live safely. BNP government, let us live, give us employment. Otherwise the people of the country will take to the streets again.'

Raising the allegation that the promise of reforming state institutions was not implemented, Hasnat Abdullah said, 'Before the election we were told structural reforms of state institutions would be carried out. But a few days ago we saw such a situation created in Bangladesh's banks that people from various private companies are being brought in and seated as MDs of Sonali, Rupali, Janata and Agrani banks. Yet these banks have fallen into crisis because of loan defaulters. This BNP government has no project to turn the banks around again.'

Hasnat Abdullah also questioned Prime Minister Tarique Rahman's plan. He said, 'Mr Tarique Rahman came and said, 'He has a plan'. But we saw his plan is one where workers are killed at the hands of leaders. Workers are killed at the hands of MPs' sons. Leaders and workers of one's own party are killed at the hands of one's own party. We did not want this kind of masterplan. We wanted a plan to build the country. But we saw BNP has no plan at all.'

The wayside rally was chaired by Jessore-4 MP and district amir Professor Golam Rasul. Jamaat amir Shafiqur Rahman, secretary general Mia Golam Parwar and Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis amir Mamunul Haque also spoke at it.