A senior BNP leader on Friday renewed the main opposition’s threat to wage a ‘tougher’ anti-government agitation if the party’s ‘missing’ organising secretary M Ilias Ali is not ‘returned.’
‘I want to tell the government that give Ilias Ali back. Otherwise, the movement to oust the government will be launched,’ the BNP standing committee member, MK Anwar, announced from a human chain protest organised by pro-BNP organisation Swadhinata Forum in front of Jatiya Press Club.
‘The prime minister and her government will be brought to justice one day for the disappearance of Ilias Ali,’ he added.
Banani police found Iliass car abandoned in front of South Point School and College near Amtali crossing in Mohakhali around 1:30am on Wednesday. Both Ilias and his driver Ansar found missing.
The BNP has called a dawn-to-dusk general strike for Sunday alleging that the law-enforcing agency abducted Ilias.
Blaming the government for behind Ilias’s disappearance, Anwar said, ‘Intimidating opposition activists won’t benefit the government. Consequences will not be pleasant if Ilias is not returned in good health.’
Presided over by Swadhinata Forum president Abu Naser Mohammad Rahmatullah, the human chain was also addressed by joint secretary general of Liberal Democratic Party Shahadat Hossain Selim, Nagarik Forum president Khaleda Yeasmin and Hridoye Bangladesh president Md Hanif.
Sammilito Pesha Jatiya Parishad formed another human chain at the same venue protesting against Ilias’s disappearance.
‘Two Chhatra Dal activists have already been made victim of forced disappearance in Sylhet. Ilias Ali is the latest in the line. People are being killed and made to disappear often. There is no security of life of the people,’ another member of BNP standing committee Nazrul Islam Khan said.
He asked the government to ‘return’ Ilias Ali to his family and party or be forced to quit.
BNP standing committee members Mirza Abbas and Goyeshwar Chandra Roy adviser to the BNP chairperson Shamsuzzaman Dudu, organising secretary Golam Akbar Khondaker, student affairs secretary Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie spoke among others.
Sammilita Pesha Jatiya Parishad member secretary AZM Zahid Hossain presided over the demonstration.