Govt will not interfere in city polls: Quader

Vowing that all upcoming city elections, including the Gazipur city one, will be free and fair, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader on Tuesday said the government will not interfere in the elections.

"It will be shown that elections can be fair under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina," he told a protest rally in Dhaka.

Dhaka South City unit of Awami League arranged the rally in front of the party's Bangabandhu Avenue central office, protesting the death threat given recently to AL President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, said whether anyone comes to elections or not, the next general elections will be held in the same way.

He said BNP wants to halt the upcoming elections, but the AL in association with the country's people will resist BNP men.

Blaming that BNP wants conflict, instability, disorder and bloodshed in the country, the AL general secretary said the ruling party AL wants to hold elections peacefully to give the country's democracy an institutional shape.

Welcoming foreign observers to the next general elections, he said, "The foreign observers will be invited to the elections".

Quader said BNP is trying to make the next parliamentary polls questionable sensing that the AL's victory cannot be prevented in any way in the upcoming national elections.

Claiming that BNP wants to turn Bangladesh into Pakistan and Afghanistan by killing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, he said, "I got surprised and the people of Bangladesh were surprised too. Two days have passed since the death threat but Mirza Fakhrul and senior BNP leaders did not utter a single word. All of them are silent spectators."

The AL will not follow the path of conflict, the AL general secretary warned, adding, "But if the BNP hits the AL men, they will not sit idle."

"It is our task to wipe out the evil force from the politics of Bangladesh," he added.

He said the BNP is now on field with a mission to kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and this is BNP's one-point.

As the BNP did not get response from people in the last 14 years, the party is following the path of conspiracy to kill the most popular leader Sheikh Hasina, Quader said.

"In the last 24 hours, people across the country understood the sentiments of AL activists. The 1975 and 2023 are not the same. BNP should realise it. The whole country roared. What will happen if Sheikh Hasina is attacked? The AL leaders and activists will not remain idle," he added.

AL Presidium Member Advocate Quamrul Islam, joint general secretaries - Mahbubul Alam Hanif and AFM Bahauddin Nasim, Organising Secretary Afzal Hossain and General Secretary of Dhaka South City AL Humayun Kabir, among others, spoke at the rally with Dhaka South City AL President Abu Ahmed Mannafi in the chair.