National Citizen Party (NCP) Chief Coordinator Nasiruddin Patwary has alleged that attempts were made from London to intimidate his party, declaring that neither he nor his party fears such threats.
“We do not fear anyone in real life, yet they try to scare us online. Do we fear anyone on the internet? Absolutely not,” Patwary said at the NCP’s Jatiya Pratinidhi Sammelan held Tuesday afternoon at the Abu Sayeed Convention Centre in Paribagh, Dhaka.
Patwary claimed that the intimidation did not originate from within Bangladesh. “These threats are being issued from London, not here,” he told party members.
Turning to national politics, the NCP leader sharply criticised the BNP-Jamaat government of 2001-2006, saying, “The chaos and failures of that period paved the way for the 1/11 administration. For the next 15 years, nearly every young person in the country faced repression in some form.”
He added that BNP shares responsibility both for the emergence of the 1/11 caretaker regime and for the long tenure of Sheikh Hasina that followed.
“BNP is partly responsible for the 15 years of prolonged rule under Sheikh Hasina,” he said.
Referring to meetings held after the events of 5 August, Patwary alleged that “corruption masterminds” influenced political actors within the cantonment. “BNP and Jamaat were present there. Jamaat even began to show sympathy toward Awami-style politics. Had a truly reformist government emerged, the country’s current situation would have been different.”
Patwary also accused BNP of engaging in political opportunism.
“The Awami League once commercialised the spirit of the Liberation War. Now we see a new wave of ‘spirit business’ emerging. Politics in Bangladesh cannot be run on slogans of sentiment,” he said.
Criticizing both BNP and Jamaat, he added, “From 2001 to 2006, Jamaat-e-Islami and others engaged in corruption across every sector. Today they are trying to split the same platform-one side claiming Islam, the other something else. But Jamaat is equally responsible for corruption.”
