| Submit your comments on this article |
| Bangladesh |
| BNP backs Islamists' resistance |
| 2013-03-13 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] The BNP has finally decided to counter the Gonojagoron Mancha movement by extending support to Islamist groups' agitations against the Mancha in different parts of the country. The main opposition party has taken the decision as it considers the Gonojagoron Mancha "a major challenge" to the BNP-led 18-party alliance's one-point movement to topple the government, sources in the BNP said. Under the banner of 18-party alliance, the BNP also wants to "expose" the Mancha as a platform sponsored by the ruling Awami League and the government, the sources added. The BNP was in a quandary since the beginning of the Shahbagh movement spearheaded by the Gonojagoron Mancha on February 5 following a war crimes tribunal verdict on Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah. Its leaders made confusing statements about the protests. But finally the party has taken up a strategy to use Islamic sentiments to counter the movement. In line with its strategy, the opposition alliance at a rally in Chittagong city on Monday extended its support to radical Islamists who threatened to foil today's Gonojagoron Mancha rally there. Hefazate Islam Bangladesh, a qaumi madrasa-based Islamist organization, has threatened to foil the rally in the port city, protesting the "anti-Islam activities of the Shahbagh atheist bloggers." The 18-party alliance's big shot in Chittagong Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, also chief of port city unit of the BNP, announced at Monday's rally the alliance's support to the Islamists' agitations against the Mancha. |
| Posted by:Fred |