Momen’s crude attempt to shift blame on BNP for Oct 28 violence

In a brazen attempt to shift the entire blame for the violence that marred three-party political demonstrations in Dhaka on October 28 on the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the ruling Awami League today sought to brand the main opposition party as the villain of the piece.
Briefing envoys and diplomats of foreign countries “on the current political situation”, at the SGH Jamuna, Bangladesh foreign minister A K Abdul Momen held the BNP responsible for the “killings of innocent citizen and law enforcement agent, arsoning, vandalism and violence” in Dhaka on October 28.
“We are shocked at what unfolded on the 28th of October and yesterday. We are not, however, surprised as we experienced BNP-Jamaat’s dreadful violence in the past,” Momen read from a prepared speech, a copy of which is available with Eastern Link.
The Awami League government machinery also launched a charm offensive, with Shayan F Rahman, the son of Salman F Rahman, the industry and investment advisor to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, sending out invites to newspaper editors and senior journalists for a “media gathering” at the “Poolside Restaurant” of the upmarket The Westin Hotel on November 2.
Salman Rahman was recently in Washington, DC, recently to meet senior US State Department officials as part of a strategy to try and soften the impact of any punitive measure that the American government might contemplate executing against the Sheikh Hasina regime which is battling to cling on to power.
Reading out from a crudely drafted text, Momen launched into BNP and its allies’ “long history of violence and aggression”. He said, “In the early 2000s, BNP-Jamaat promoted an atmosphere of violence and intimidation, particularly during the 2001 general elections, which was marred by widespread violence and allegations of vote rigging. After the election, BNP-Jamaat activists committed murders and severely tortured members of the minority community and gang-rape of women.
“In 2013, before the general elections, the BNP and its allies vandalized several thousand vehicles and set many pf those on fire using petrol bombs, very often burning alive the passengers stranded inside. Some of them are still living with horrific scars and trauma.
“More than 400 people, including 20 law enforcement officers, were killed in their petrol bomb and hand grenade attacks”.
Momen sought to deflect attention of the diplomats by reminding them of the “stark similarities between the scenario of 2013-14-15 and now”, adding that “you may also have observed that this time their target is more on the Police and Judiciary. Apart from brutally beating one policeman to death, they attacked the residences of Hon’ble Chief Justice and other judges, torched six police outposts. 65 police officers were admitted at the Police Hospital and another to Dhaka Medical Hospital”.
The allegations against the BNP come at a time when there is clear evidence – essentially numerous video footages by several electronic and digital/online media channels – of the attack by Awami League cadres on the chief justice’s residence besides other targets, including torching of buses, damaging public and private property and attacking government and private vehicles.
Alerting the diplomats about the BNP’s “three-day nation-wide blockade starting from tomorrow”, Momen said “we can only expect more and more assault on the lives and properties of innocent civilians. However, apart from the law-and-order aspect, there is an economic aspect of the strikes and blockades too. According to the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, strikes and blockades by BNP cost the country a total of Tk. 1,600 crore (or USD 192.3 million) or 0.2 per cent of GDP per day”.
Holding “terrorizing the nation and misguiding our people” as BNP’s motive to “impede democratic processes and promote unconstitutional forces”, Momen said the opposition party’s “tactics of fear and forgery did not work out before and they will not now”.