Staff Reporter:
The National Citizens’ Party (NCP) Tuesday demanded that those involved in the harassment of Profes-sor Muhammad Yunus, former interim government chief adviser, on foreign soil be identified and brought to justice along with the trial of the Awami League as a party.
In a statement issued Tuesday, the NCP strongly condemned and protested the incident in which Prof Yunus was surrounded, harassed and targeted with aggressive slogans at John F Kennedy (JFK) Interna-tional Airport in New York.
Several fugitive Awami League and Jubo League leaders and activists were seen in the videos and re-ports published in the media, it said.
Among them were New York Metropolitan Awami League General Secretary Imdad Chowdhury and US Jubo League General Secretary Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury.
The NCP termed the harassment of a former head of government and globally acclaimed figure on for-eign soil as an “anti-state terrorist act”.
The statement said the fugitive Awami League, despite being ousted through a historic mass uprising, has resorted to insulting and humiliating eminent Bangladeshis abroad.
“While the party may consider such acts as politics, the people of Bangladesh view such behaviour as terrorism,” it added.
The NCP said the incident has once again proved that no reconciliation with the fugitive Awami League is possible.
The party demanded that every person who took part in the harassment be identified on the basis of vid-eo footage, eyewitness accounts and other relevant information.
It also called for legal action against the Awami League and Jubo League leaders named in media re-ports.
Meanwhile, in a separate message to the media, NCP Convener and Chief Whip of the opposition in the Jatiya Sangsad Nahid Islam condemned the incident and demanded that the trial of the Awami League begin as a party.
Nahid Islam said those involved in the July mass killings, as well as enforced disappearances and mur-ders during the fascist regime, must be tried and the verdicts executed swiftly.
He also urged resistance against the Awami League’s network active at home and abroad.
The NCP leader said bringing the Awami League to trial as a party is now “the demand of the time”.
He said it would consider any talk of reconciliation with the Awami League without ensuring justice a conspiratorial move and an attempt to destabilise the country.
Nahid Islam also urged the government to take effective steps to ensure the security of Prof Yunus and other members of the interim government.
