Quader asks BNP to join polls shunning caretaker govt demand

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader today urged BNP to join the next general elections, shunning its demand of restoring the caretaker government system before the polls.

"Walk on a straight path. Come on the path of elections leaving the demand of caretaker government," he told a rally at AL's Bangabandhu Avenue central office in the capital.  Dhaka South and North units of Awami League jointly arranged the rally protesting the 17 August series bomb attack carried out across the country in 2005.

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, said the caretaker government system is only found in one country of the world, which is Pakistan.

"I will ask (BNP secretary general) Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir to go to Pakistan along with his party men because such a government system is found in no other country of the world," he said.  Responding to a remark of Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Quader said the BNP secretary general has forgotten the history.

"I get surprised when Mirza Fakhrul says that Awami League wants to eliminate the Zia family," he added.  He said that August is the month of mourning as "our tears of pain poured in this month and we recall the memory of horrible tragedy of this month".

Highlighting the development work of the AL government, the road transport and bridges minister said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has brought a tremendous positive change in Bangladesh.

Claiming that today's Bangladesh and that of 15 years ago is not the same, he said Sheikh Hasina turned Bangladesh into a prosperous one.

Chaired by Dhaka North AL Sheikh president Bazlur Rahman, the rally was addressed, among others, by AL presidium members Dr Abdur Razzaque and Mofzazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Bir Bikram, AL joint general secretaries Mahbubul Alam Hanif and AFM Bahauddin Nasim, organising secretaries Mirza Azam and SM Kamal Hossain, Dhaka South AL president Abu Ahmed Mannafi, Dhaka North AL general secretary SM Mannan Kochi, Dhaka South AL general secretary Humayun Kabir, its vice-presidents Nurul Amin Ruhul and Dr Dilip Roy, joint general secretaries Morshed Hossain Kamal and Mohiuddin Mohi, organising secretary Akhter Hossain, Dhaka North AL organizing secretary Azizul Huque Rana and Dhaka South AL office secretary Reaz Uddin Reaz. 

Hanif said the BNP-Jamaat alliance government tried to turn Bangladesh into a militant state, while the countrywide series of bomb attacks is its best evidence.

'BNP introduced disappearance-killing-oppression in the country. They want to bring the country back on that track through 'Take back Bangladesh' but will not allow them to do so," he added.