Staff correspondent :

Awami League (AL) General Secretary Obaidul Quader today said BNP has been doing politics capitalising on communalism as the party believes in the politics of Pakistani ideology and extremism.

“After the national elections in 2001, the targets of their (BNP) attacks were the places of worship, houses and business establishments of the minorities. BNP terrorist forces carried out attacks on the Hindu community in various places as per directives of the then ministers and MPs,” he said in a statement.

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, said no one, from children to the elderly people, was spared from the brutal torture of BNP men.

Now, as elections are approaching, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir is spreading confusions to influence people of other religions, including the Sanatan faith, and indirectly threatening them, he said.

The AL general secretary said the untold torture that the BNP-Jamaat cadres carried out on the minorities after the 2001 elections is unprecedented in the country’s history.

Around 50,000 women and children were raped across the country, while about 200 women were gang-raped by BNP cadres in one night in Charfashion upazila of Bhola, he added.

Not only the minority communities, Quader said, but hundreds of AL leaders and activists were the victims of BNP’s terrorism.

About 24,000 AL men were killed during the BNP-Jamaat regime while many AL leaders and activists are still living an inhuman life and carrying the marks of their wounds, he said.

The road transport minister said during the Babri Masjid incident in India, the BNP secretary general had shamelessly lied about the security of the Hindu community but at that time, Bangladesh turned into a bloody ground due to the attacks of BNP cadres and their radical communal allies.

He said the then BNP government had completely failed to protect the Hindu community and their places of worship and houses.

At that time, many temples were vandalised only in Dhaka city and barbaric attacks were carried out on the Hindu community, he added.

Quader said not only the Hindu community, BNP had failed to provide minimum security to the common people too.

BNP’s politics has been running capitalising on religion and extremist communal forces, he said.

Under their direct supervision, violent militant leaders like Bangla Bhai had emerged during the BNP-Jamaat reign, while Bangladesh turned into a sanctuary of militancy and terrorism, the AL general secretary said.

The AL general secretary said the August 21 grenade attack and series of bomb blasts in more than 500 places in 63 districts at a time were carried out during the BNP-Jamaat tenure.

No matter how much Mirza Fakhrul and others make falsehood, the country’s people have not forgotten the horrific rise of terrorism and militancy under the BNP’s patronage during its regime, he said.

Quader said nationalism, socialism, democracy and secularism were taken as the fundamental principles of the state, while equal rights of people of all classes have been ensured.

The Awami League has been doing politics bearing these pledges, he said, adding that the ruling AL believes that the country’s every citizen has the equal rights and all have the rights to practice their own religions respectively.

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