BNP to leave Jamaat out of ‘unity process’

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has decided not to keep Jamaat-e-Islami in the proposed national unity process to fight militancy, pro-BNP intellectual Prof Emajuddin Ahmed said yesterday.

“Jamaat is the only party which is creating problems towards forging the national unity. That's why the BNP chairperson and chief of the 20-party alliance has decided to keep Jamaat out of the unity process,” he told a discussion in the city.

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The programme was organised by Quader Siddique-led Krishak Shramik Janata League at Jatiya Press Club.

Emajuddin, also a former vice-chancellor of Dhaka University, said Khaleda thinks Jamaat has become a burden for the 20-party alliance.

He, however, said a major portion of Jamaat men have no links with war crimes as they were born after the Liberation War.

In the wake of a spate of terrorist attacks in Bangladesh, Khaleda came up with a proposal for creating national unity to combat the threat of militancy and terrorism.

The ruling Awami League rejected the proposal, citing BNP's affiliation with Jamaat which opposed Bangladesh's liberation in 1971 and the party's alleged links with different militant outfits.

Speaking at different programmes earlier, several senior BNP leaders, including standing committee member ASM Hannan Shah, indicated that BNP was ready to drop Jamaat from the national unity process for the country's greater interest.

Prof Emajuddin in his speech yesterday said forging national unity is very much necessary in the present situation of the country.

Without naming Jamaat, he said a political party is being blamed for not creating national unity among all political parties.

“The government can ban the party at time if it wants,” he added.

“GOVT DESTROYING EVIDENCE”

Senior BNP leader Nazrul Islam Khan yesterday asked the government to explain its “motive behind destroying evidence” by killing militants instead of arresting them.

Addressing a press conference at the BNP's Nayapaltan central office, he said, “Awami League leaders say the BNP is decrying the killing of militants. But we want to say that BNP wants militancy to be uprooted by collecting information from extremists.”

Also a BNP standing committee member, Nazrul alleged that the government was making elimination of militancy complicated by not collecting information from militants through arresting them.

The BNP is contacting different political parties to bring them under a single and united platform for initiating a fight against militancy, he added.

Contacted, a BNP standing committee member denied making any comment on Emajuddin's statement.

“I don't know what madam told him [Emajuddin] about keeping Jamaat out of the unity process or dropping the party from the 20-party alliance,” the BNP leader said on condition of anonymity.

Another standing committee member said he was not aware of any such development that the BNP was going to drop Jamaat from the alliance.