BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Wednesday said the ongoing movement will not end unless there is a political solution to the persisting political crisis in the country.
 
Speaking at a press conference, he also said the common people joined the student movement in an outburst of their pent-up anger. "It (the movement) has not stopped...If you look at the history of the Pakistan period, you would find the movements had abated at one stage, but later gained momentum again. This movement was an eye-opener," the BNP leader said.
 
He said the government could stop the movement temporarily by resorting to repression and using law enforcers and deploying the army. "But it'll never end if the problem is not resolved politically."
 
When asked what he meant by the political solution, Fakhrul said, "The political solution is that the government must resign and an impartial election has to be arranged under a neutral administration."
 
The BNP leader said the ordinary people and even the teenagers took to the streets during the student movement as the government has failed to run the country ensure job and sources for people and control the growing hikes in essential commodities.
 
"On the one hand, there was the quota movement of the students, on the other hand, the extreme failure of the government in all areas, including reviving the economy and curbing corruption...They have completely failed to establish good governance. That is why the pen-up anger of the people has been exposed during this movement," he observed.
 
Fakhrul alleged that the government has tried to malign the BNP leadership by blaming them for the violence and killing only to divert people's attention.
 
He said the government's statements involving BNP and other opposition parties with the violence are "baseless, misleading and politically motivated."
 
The BNP leader said the government is not talking about people's problems and the casualties as it is only highlighting the attacks on some government establishments. "They (govt) are not saying anything about this movement that claimed several hundred lives."
 
He said the government has used extreme force to suppress a movement of students by killing people and enforcing curfew and deploying army. "This has not happened in recent times. It has been proved that the government has failed. The government has carried these incidents (of violence) in a planned way."
 
Citing a report from a leading newspaper, Fakhrul said a Sramik League leader gave a confessional statement before a judicial magistrate court in Chattogram that he was given money to torch a BRTC bus. He also slammed the government for not fully restoring the internet service, depriving people of getting proper information.

Fakhrul claimed that at least 2,000 opposition leaders and activists were arrested across the country following the violent student movement. He demanded immediate release of their arrested leaders and activists. “So far we have come to know that around 2,000 of our leaders and activists were arrested,” he said.

He, however, said they don’t still have the exact information about the arrestees and casualties as the communication system has been closed by the government

 “We’ve got isolated and we can’t contact with our leaders and workers as the government has kept the communication system shut,” said the BNP secretary general. He also said they are still unable to resume their political activities since their party’s Nayapaltan central office was locked by the law enforcers following a raid there. “You saw how our office was raided and everything was taken away.”

Fakhrul said their party’s senior leaders, including standing committee members Nazrul Islam Khan and Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Gono Odhikar Parishad president Nurul Haque Nur, Jamaat leaders Golam Parwar and Abdullah Mohammad Taher are among the arrestees.

About the casualties, Fakhrul said the government is not giving information about how many people were killed and injured as it wants to mislead the nation. The authoritian government is only trying to highlight the attacks and vandalism during the movement dropping the issue of casualties to shift the blames on BNP.

The BNP leader also said the government wants to completely exclude the issue of the movement and casualties only bring forward the incidents of attacks and vandalism in government buildings as it wants to put the blame on BNP. He dismissed the government’s allegations involving BNP with subversive activities as baseless.

Fakhrul said they were with the movement but it does not mean that they patronised sabotage. They (govt) incited the violence and invited the problem". He claimed that BNP never carried out attack on state establishment in the 40-year history of the party’s political journey.