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The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has decided to meet chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus as soon as possible to express their concerns over the ongoing attacks, vandalism and arson in different parts, including the capital Dhaka, of the country.

The decision was made at an emergency meeting of the party’s standing committee, held at the BNP chairpersons’ office at Gulshan in the capital Dhaka on Friday.

‘We will soon meet the chief adviser and raise our concerns about the current situation in the country and demand that any attempt to create anarchy in the country be strongly resisted,’ BNP standing committee member Salahuddin Ahmed told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· after the meeting.

The standing committee meeting was told that no such situation should be  allowed in the country in which the allies of fascism get an opportunity to conspire to destroy the stability of the government and the state, he said.

Another BNP standing committee member, preferring anonymity, said that the party would demand national elections as soon as possible and convey to the chief adviser that it did not want any unrests in the country.

Chaired by the party’s acting chairman, Tarique Rahman, the meeting was attended by BNP standing committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Muhammad Jamiruddin Sircar, Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Nazrul Islam Khan, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Salauddin Ahmed, Begum Selima Rahman, Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed and AZM Zahid Hossain.

Standing committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy said that the BNP did not accept the ongoing chaos in the country.

He said that the meeting decided to instruct party leaders and activists nationwide to refrain from engaging in such incidents and to remain patient.

Gayeshwar further said that the meeting discussed the need for party leaders and activists to avoid falling into the trap set up by Sheikh Hasina through her provocative statements.

Another BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said that the government had failed in several areas, and this failure was alarming for the country.

‘Under the circumstances, we would remind the government that it should announce the election date soon,’ he said.

Mosharraf also said that the standing committee meeting had discussed the issues raised in the party’s statement issued Thursday night.

The BNP in the statement expressed deep concern over the country’s ongoing situation and urged the interim government to take decisive actions in upholding law and order to counter radical anarchists and anti-democratic forces and ensure that the state’s role remains evidently effective.

‘We are observing with deep concern that the provocative actions of the defeated and fugitive dictator and her allies, who were ousted through the sacrifice of thousands of martyrs, and their indecent and offensive remarks about the student uprising in July-August, have sparked intense anger and resentment among the people of the country,’ the statement said.

As a result, the people’s desire for erasing the memories, statues, installations and nameplates linked to the fallen dictatorship was evident in various parts of the country, including in Dhaka, it mentioned.

The BNP expressed concern that if the government failed to demonstrate its ability to control the emerging situation, the stability of the state and the government would be threatened.

‘In this situation, there is a possibility of a resurgence of the defeated fascists, along with radical anarchists and anti-democratic forces, both domestic and foreign and signs of which are already visible,’ the statement said.

The BNP called on the interim government to establish control over the situation.

Eliminating fascism does not lie in erasing the memories linked to the fallen fascists and dictatorship, rather the best approach is to establish anti-fascist ideological thoughts, ideological politics, build a solid foundation for anti-fascist mass unity and practice a political culture of national unity, the statement said.

The BNP said that it was the highest priority for the government to install an elected political government as soon as possible to restore the lost democratic rights, constitutional rights, human rights, including voting rights, and to embody the aspirations of the July uprising.

The main mandate of the interim government was to organise early elections by implementing urgent electoral reforms, however, despite the people’s aspirations, the government seemed to be prioritising other issues instead of focusing on this critical task, the statement claimed.

It said that the interim government had failed to take effective steps in the past six months to bring the fugitive dictator and her accomplices to justice, resulting in the public being encouraged to take illegal actions, such as taking the law in their hands.

‘If people resort to such actions while a government is in power, it could tarnish the government’s image both locally and internationally,’ the statement said.

The BNP said that people from various walks of life in the country were creating public suffering through ‘mob culture’ on the streets with various demands, while the government had failed to take appropriate actions in addressing the situation.