‘It’s Bangladesh, not Pakistan’

Ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) general secretary Obaidul Quader on Sunday asked his opposition counterpart in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to go slow, and warned that Bangladesh is not Pakistan.

“Mr secretary general, go slow. This is Bangladesh, not Pakistan,” Quader said to BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, while addressing a discussion meeting at Rajarbagh Police Lines in the capital.

Bangladesh Police Service Association organised the discussion marking the National Mourning Day.

In an oblique reference to the BNP, Quader said if an incident happens in Pakistan, the leaders of a certain political party in Bangladesh start celebrating it.

“As if Bangladesh is Pakistan. This is Bangladesh, not Pakistan,” said Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister.

The minister’s remarks came hours after the chief justice, Surendra Kumar Sinha, earlier in the day warned that the judiciary has been patient enough, referring to a Pakistan Supreme Court order which removed that country’s prime minister Nawaz Sharif a couple of weeks ago.

“Are you comparing a hero with a villain today? A comparison between a hero of history and a hero of a footnote is not possible. A comparison between the hero and the villain is not possible. Those who are committing these misdeeds will be tossed to the garbage heap of history,” Quader noted.

The ruling party general secretary asked the police to not let anyone breach the law - no matter how powerful he or she is.

Speaking on the occasion, home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the government is trying to bring back the killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from abroad.

In an oblique reference to the observation given in the 16th amendment annulment verdict which read: “No nation - no country can be made of or by one person”, inspector general of police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque said, “Only one person - not many - leads the process of building a country, a nation. Other leaders accompany him, but it is his leadership under which a nation is made. No nation can have two ‘Fathers of the Nation’.

India’s Father of the Nation is Gandhi. How many Fathers of the Nation are there in Pakistan? Only one. I don’t know who is trying to stir a controversy over this here. There is no reason for a controversy here.”

The chief of police said that the evil axis which killed Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is still active in Bangladesh.

Source: Prothom Alo