Main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Sunday alleged that the communal violence occurred in Panchagarh due to the Awami League government’s carelessness and indirect patronization.
The BNP leader made the allegation in a statement condemning the Panchagarh violence that killed two and injured scores.
He said that religious harmony had been prevailing in Bangladesh for long.
‘Such incidents are being occurred with the help of the “ruling quarters” as a part of the government’s longstanding trick of bad politics to divert people’s attention while they are vocal against sufferings due to economic crisis and establishing people’s rights to vote,’ he said.
‘Such an issue of religious rivalry is being presented artificially to mislead the democratic forces at home and abroad,’ Fakhrul alleged in the statement.
He urged democracy loving people to remain alert about the issue.
On Friday, angry mob under the banner of Khatme Nobuat fought pitched battles with police, with a crowd of several hundred people, who had come to attend the Jumma prayer but were drawn into the clash with the demand for declaring the Ahmadiyyas non-Muslim and stopping a religious programme of the Ahmadiyyas at Ahmednagar under Sadar upazila in Panchagarh.
The attackers ran amok for hours, taking their time to loot, vandalise and torch Ahmadiyya houses and businesses.
Two people were killed and scores injured during the violence.
