People are being deceived in the name of price adjustment, Jamaat alleges at protest rally

Nurul Islam Bulbul, a member of the executive council of Jamaat-e-Islami, has alleged that the government is repeatedly raising prices and cutting people's pockets in the name of adjusting oil and gas prices.

He said: 'The government had publicised widely in the media and in parliament that even if fuel prices rose in the international market, the government would give subsidies but would not raise oil prices. Immediately after that publicity, the government raised the prices of oil, gas and electricity and deceived the people.'

He made the remarks today, Sunday, at a protest rally organised by Dhaka South Jamaat at the north gate of the Baitul Mukarram Mosque in the capital, against the rise in cylinder gas and essential commodity prices.

The Jamaat leader alleged that while oil and gas prices are falling in different countries of the world, prices are being raised in our country. He said: 'The government's ministers are lying to the nation with their eyes closed; they are deceiving.'

Nurul Islam said fertiliser is not being allocated according to demand. Yet the agriculture minister claims there is no fertiliser shortage in the country. The agriculture minister is trying to hide the fertiliser crisis by holding staged exchanges with party leaders and workers in the name of exchanging views with farmers and publicising 'arranged questions' in the media.

At the rally, Shafiqul Islam Masud, a member of the party's central executive council, said: 'During the interim government, BNP used to say that elections were the solution to all problems.'

Posing the question of whether the election of 12 February had taken place, he said: if the election had taken place, why is the crisis growing instead of being resolved? The people did not suffer during the two years of the interim government the way they are suffering terrible hardship now under the BNP government.

Central Majlis-e-Shura members Mohammad Kamal Hossain, Syed Joynul Abedin, Rashedul Islam and many others also spoke at the rally.

After the rally, Jamaat leaders and activists brought out a procession. The procession ended at Kakrail intersection via Paltan intersection.