News

Staff Correspondent : Leaders and activists of the newly-launched Asol BNP (Real BNP) tried once again to occupy the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) central office at Nayapaltan in Dhaka on Sunday but failed.
They were met with stick-wielding activists of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), student wing of the BNP, who alleged that it was all a conspiracy of the government to split the BNP. Witnesses said that about a dozen activists of Asol BNP led by its chief Kamrul Hasan Nasim, came to the party head office in a pick-up van with loudspeakers blaring slogans like, “Bangabandhu is the Father of the Nation but we need Ziaur Rahman” at around 3:40pm.
Yards away from the office the Chhatra Dal and BNP activists charged at them with sticks and drove them away. The vehicle was set on fire, they added. Kamrul, who claimed to be the convener of the Asol BNP, said, “We are trying to stage a showdown in a bid to realise our demand for reforms in the BNP by setting up Janataer Uccha Adalat (People’s High Court) in presence of the executive committee members of the BNP.”
“I belong to BNP in body, mind and soul. We want its unity from the bottom of our hearts, we want reform to its supreme leadership. I have been raising the demand from January 2015,” he said. Kamrul said, “Its supreme leadership including Khaleda Zia and her elder son Tarique Rahman have failed to organise the party upholding the spirit of the party founder Shaheed Ziaur Rahman.”
Condemning and protesting against the attack on them, he said, “Until we succeed, we will try to set up the court in front of the party office,” he added.  Atik Al Hasan Mintu, Vice President of the JCD, alleged, “It is all a conspiracy of the government to split the BNP with the help of ‘tokais’.”  On January 2, a similar incident occurred in front of the Nayapaltan office when about 100 supporters of the so-called Asol BNP tried to occupy the office but had to retreat without success.
Earlier, on November 26, the Asol BNP held a rally in front of the National Press Club and announced that the BNP will be freed of, what it said, sick leadership. Kamrul Hasan Nasim, hailing from Jessore, was a central leader of the Jatiyatabadi Krishak Dal, a platform of farmers under BNP patronage, back in 2004. He founded his ‘real BNP’ on January 9 in 2015. Till date his group’s activities were limited to press statements and a press conference at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity in June last year.

(source : this news was published in daily obserber on Monday, 18 January, 2016)