It is a dangerous sign for Bangladesh, for, in London, Tarique is full time guided by the Pakistan Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), and some of the BNP leaders are not happy with this as they said this type of dependency on ISI is not good for their party politics.
by Swadesh Roy
Tarique Rahman, son of Khaleda Zia, the leader of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is now in exile in London. He received two punishments from the apex court of Bangladesh. In a money laundering case, he got seven years’ jail, and in the dangerous 21 August case, which was also an attempt to murder case of Sheikh Hasina, he got lifetime jail. Although Tarique is a convicted person, his party made him the acting chairman after his mother had been arrested, who got seven years’ jail in a corruption case and ten years’ Jail in another corruption case in 2018.
Being an acting president, Tarique decided that his party would participate in the general election of Bangladesh on 30 January 2018. Tarique spoke to all the party members who were willing to participate in the election as a candidate of BNP after making the decision.
He selected many new candidates, but who were selected as a candidate for being the member of the Parliament they were not the real replacement in their area's main leaders. But many sources said that whom Tarique thought fought against the present government strongly last ten years, he rewarded them nominating as a candidate of BNP. On the other hand, some of the senior leaders opined differently saying that Tarique selected those people who were condemned as a terrorist in their locality.
However, BNP could not achieve a good result in the last election, and they rejected the election result. Even they declared that they would not join the parliament. According to the constitution of Bangladesh, Parliament members have to take oath within ninety days from the commencement day of the first session of the parliament, following this, last 29th April was the last date for the member of the parliament for oath taking. The country saw four parliament members out of six members of BNP took the oath (one of their Parliament members took oath earlier), and the general secretary of their party suddenly arranged a press conference at their party’s president office at Gulshan area in Dhaka. In that press conference, the general secretary of their party Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that it was the decision of Tarique Zia, so the parliament members of his party had taken oath.
Though the general secretary said, according to the decision of Mr. Rahman they had taken the oath, the panorama behind the curtain was totally different. Tarique had to decide that for saving his party from a split; otherwise, the elected parliament members would claim themselves as the main BNP. Besides, in the third week of the April, a series of meetings were held at Tarique's house in London where some intellectuals of BNP sat with Tarique and tried to convince him that in this present situation of Bangladesh, there are no other ways without joining parliament. Even then, before joining parliament, BNP leaders sat a series of meeting with many foreign diplomats who are working in Bangladesh. They also suggested BNP to join the parliament. Even, one diplomat said, in his country, if any party gets only one sit, they also join in the parliament.
However, joining in the parliament was a big setback for the BNP, for they rejected the election but now they are in the parliament. Anyway, their party secretary said that they made mistake by saying earlier that they would not join in the parliament. But in the whole process, Tarique did not discuss anything with any of his party standing committee members whether all of his parties senior and important persons are the members of the standing committee. They are feeling insulted now. That is why, none of the members of the standing committee joined the standing committee's meeting of the first week of May. The meeting was therefore postponed. Some of the standing committee's members passed the remark in personal discussion that why they would join in the party activities. It is a total insult to them as the party members were going to join in the parliament but they had to know it from the television screen. The day before the oath-taking day, Tarique talked to the parliament members over Skype but never thought of discussing the matter with the senior leaders.
In spite of that, a close source of Tarique Rahman said that Tarique does not bother the senior leaders, including his mother. He is thinking and working totally different way. He is trying to take the whole control of the party in his own hand and going to organize a new generation party. To this end, Tarique is talking through Skype with the grass root level leaders every day and night. His plan is that he will organize the party by the new generation from Union Parisad (first unit of the local government in Bangladesh). He wants to organize all the local unit of leadership within this year; after this, in the next year, Tarique will go for his party conference and he hopes that from that conference he will be the chairman of the party and his `yes man' will be the general secretary.
It is a dangerous sign for Bangladesh, for, in London, Tarique is full time guided by the Pakistan Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), and some of the BNP leaders are not happy with this as they said this type of dependency on ISI is not good for their party politics. Moreover, they think that last ten years they made more mistakes due to the guidance of the ISI. Actually, if Tarique becomes successful to organize in his own way, it will be almost a terrorist organization and within very soon this organization will be a threat for the internal security of Bangladesh, even for India. Because, Tarique is not only the close guy of ISI, he is also connected with IS and terrorist Don Dawood Ibrahim. When his mother was in power, he had a de facto powerhouse.
Then he had engaged the state machinery with arms smuggling, drug smuggling even the human trafficking. Not only that he helped to build up training center in Bangladesh for the IS and Indian dissident group but also in his protection, Zawahiri, the second man of Laden came to Bangladesh. One terrorist, Mufti Hannan, died by gallows for a terrorist attack case, confessed that Tarique had called him in his office and gave him grenade to assassinate Sheikh Hasina. Even, some sources said, one of the Pakistani guys involved in Bombay Taj Hotel attack now close to Tarique. To sum it up, If Tarique becomes successful to form an organization in Bangladesh in his own way, it will, surely, be a threat for the internal security of India and Bangladesh. On the other hand, without his party workers, Tarique will get many Rohingya boys for his terrorist activities and it is true huge numbers of Rohingyas are now out of their camp.
Swadesh Roy, Executive Editor. The Daily Janakantha, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is a highest state award winning journalist and can be reached at swadeshroy@gmail.com
, and s...){kind=link}
Post a Comment