Outcome of govt conspiracy: BNP
IOJ quits BNP-led alliance
A faction led by Maulana Rakib opposes move, decides to stay
STAFF REPORTER
The Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ), headed by Maulana Abdul Latif Nezami, yesterday (Thursday) severed its links with the BNP-led 20-party alliance. However, a section of the party, led by its senior vice-chairman Maulana Abdur Rakib, has announced that it would stay with the alliance, causing a split within the organisation.
Addressing the triennial conference of the IOJ at the Engineers Institution, party chief Abdul Latif Nezami said: We will no longer have any relations with the 20-party alliance.
Soon after the announcement, Maulana Abdur Rakib declared himself as the new chairman of the party and held a press conference claiming that they would remain with the alliance.
The BNP vice-chairman, Maj (Retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed, at a function yesterday, accused the government of trying to split the 20-party alliance by adopting a carrot and stick policy.
Nezami announced that they would field candidates in all the 300 constituencies in the next general election. He demanded that a fresh national election be held with the participation of all political parties.
Nezami said they left the 20-party alliance to give more time to the Jote and strengthen it. He said there was neither any pressure from the government to leave the alliance, nor do they have any complaint against the 20-party alliance.
The IOJ secretary general, Mufti Faizullah, Abul Hasnat Amini and Prof Ihtesham Sarwar, among others, spoke at the conference.
At a hurriedly call press conference at the BNP chairpersons Gulshan office, Maulana Rakib said the IOJ was with the 20-party alliance and would continue to do so in future.
The new executive committee of the IOJ will be announced soon and the national convention of the Jote will be held on March 31, he said.
About the January 5 polls, he said it has got legitimacy constitutionally, but not morally. So, holding a fresh election has become a necessity, he added.
There was no presence of the alliance partner in the January 5 rally of the BNP, and reciprocally the IOJ did not invite BNP leaders at their conference.
Addressing a discussion to mark Felani Day, BNP leader Maj (Retd) Hafizuddin said the government is trying to split the 20-party alliance with its carrot and stick policy. He made the comments apparently in the context of the IOJs departure from the 20-party alliance.
He called upon the government to accept the proposal of party chief Khaleda to hold a fresh polls by reaching an agreement through talks.
All community, a social organisation, organised the meeting to recall the memory of Felani, killed by the BSF at the barbed-wire fencing at Nageshwari in Kurigram.
The IOJ led by late Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini joined the 20-party alliance in 1998. Amini later became an MP in Eighth Parliament, with BNP support.
A faction of National Peoples Party led by its chairman Sheikh Shawkat Hossain Nilu also left the 20-party alliance last year, but a faction of NPP led by its then secretary general Dr Fariduddin Farhad stayed back
