Shawdesh Desk:

Information and broadcasting minister and Awami League (AL) joint general secretary Hasan Mahmud on Friday said BNP, which has turned into a party of muscle power, is now on the verge of ruin and will fall if it boycotts the next general election.

The minister gave this opinion at the ’93rd birth anniversary meeting of Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib organised by Bangabandhu Cultural Alliance at the National Press Club on Topkhana Road in the capital at this afternoon.

He said, “If BNP does not take part in the next parliamentary elections, it cannot even elect union councilors or city corporation councilors. I will ask their leaders and workers – what benefits will you get by being a cadre of Tariq Rahman after boycotting elections.”

The minister said, ‘As long as Tariq Rahman cannot elect, no one from BNP will be able to elect even a union member – this is their policy now.”

“So I will say to BNP, they will benefit only if they walk on the path of democracy. And I will tell their senior leaders, how long will you follow the imposed decision, by doing this, BNP is on the edge of ruin today, if it boycotts the next election, it will fall into the abyss.”

Warning about BNP’s mass rally, he said, “We will not give up if people are attacked, police is attacked, people’s property is destroyed from BNP’s mass rally. We will build resistance with the people.”

The Minister said, “BNP has made a lot of pleas to foreigners for the past few years. In the end, they found that foreigners had no support for their caretaker government and that nothing they wanted was happening. Now they started talking in different tones. Now they are saying that it doesn’t matter what India says, it doesn’t matter what the US or the EU says.”

“This country belongs to the people of Bangladesh, not to anyone else. If it has to go, it has to go to the people. BNP did not gain anything by going to foreigners,” Hasan Mahmud added.