BNP on Tuesday asked the Election Commission to take punitive action against four government officials, including its secretary and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner, over the recent Nayapaltan incident.
It made the demand in a letter, signed by its secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, sent to Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda. A BNP delegation, led by joint secretary general Moazzem Hossain Alal, handed over the letter to EC Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed on Tuesday noon.BNP alleged that the four officials instigated the Nayapaltan incident and the matters related to the filing of false cases against BNP leaders and activists.
The two other officials are EC joint secretary Farhad Ahammad Khan and the DMP Deputy Police Commissioner concerned.The EC joint secretary signed an EC letter sent to the Inspector General of Police on November 13 asking him to enforce the electoral code of conduct.The EC issued the directives a day after the end of collection and submission of AL nomination forms, the letter said.
In the letter, BNP alleged that the EC secretary earlier defined gathering of nomination seekers and their supporters in front of the BNP office as a violation of the electoral code of conduct. “EC Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed’s misleading remarks in the media and DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia’s (recent) remarks clearly instigated the incident,” the letter reads.
At least 50 people, including 23 policemen, were injured in a clash between BNP leaders and activists and law enforcers in front of the party’s Nayapaltan central office on the third day of its nomination-form sale on Wednesday.
Police lobbed teargas shells, rubber bullets and charged baton on the BNP men while two police cars were torched during the clash.However, both the government and BNP traded a blame game over the clash ahead of the national election billed for December 30. BNP also handed over four other letters, containing a number of demands for ensuring a level-playing field ahead of the 11th parliamentary elections slated for December 30, to the EC secretary.
source: UNB
