Govt wants to eliminate political opponents: AL
The bomb was planted on January 12 to kill AL Joint General Secretary Obaidul Quader as he was scheduled to address a gathering there, the leaders said, demanding that the persons responsible be brought to book.
The government is harbouring fundamentalists and bombers with a view to eliminating political opponents and creating a panic among the countrymen, said AL General Secretary Abdul Jalil at a press conference at the party's Dhanmondi office.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. The bomb blasts will not stop unless the BNP-Jamaat alliance government is toppled and a democratic government is established through a free and fair election, he added.
The government is trying to cover up the incident of planting the bomb as its men are involved, the AL leader said, adding that the ruling alliance has created a reign of terror through repeated bomb blasts.
Obaidul Quader said the Noakhali district administration remained indifferent to the incident; they even did not visit the place where the bomb was found.
"The officer-in-charge (OC) of Sudharam police station even refused to register any case," he said.
Although the police recovered the bomb weighing four kilograms, they claimed that it was not a bomb, just a bomb-like object, he added.
After the press conference, the leaders held a meeting with the presidents and general secretaries of the city's AL thana units and discussed their January 19 programme. The AL leaders and activists will march towards the Election Commission Secretariat on the day.
They called on the leaders and activists of 14-party opposition combine to converge on Kalabagan field at Dhanmondi at 11:00am on the day to make the march a success.
The meeting observed that the chief election commissioner has been continuing the process of preparing the voter list in violation of the High Court order.
Party leaders Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Motia Chowdhury, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Abdul Mannan, Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Mukul Bose and Dr Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin were present at the press conference.