Claiming that the ruling party has ‘involvement’ in Thursday’s vehicle torching incidents in the capital, BNP on Sunday said it does not believe in the politics of ‘arson terrorism’.

“We would like to unequivocally say BNP doesn’t believe in arson terrorism. We’ve already said several public vehicles were set on fire in Dhaka on November 12 in a planned way with an ill-motive,” said BNP acting office secretary Syed Emran Saleh Prince.

He made the remarks at a press conference at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office trashing Awami League (AL) General Secretary Obaidul Quader’s remark that BNP could not come out of and give up its traditional practice of arson terrorism.

The BNP leader said Awami League is indulging in its ‘old game’ of eliminating BNP from politics by filing ‘false’ cases against the party leaders and workers by setting fire to public transport through various agencies aiming to hush up the government's ‘terrorism, corruption and overall misrule’ "Awami League itself is involved in these incidents.”

Some vehicles were torched at different parts of the capital, including Nayapaltan, Jatiya Press Club, Gulistan, Shahbagh areas, on Thursday. Several cases were filed with different police stations, including Ramna, Shahbagh and Paltan Model Police ones, against BNP leaders and activists in this connection.

Prince said their party is worried over the sudden incidents of vehicle torching. “We don’t see any reason for carrying out such incidents. BNP participated in various by-elections in the past where our victory was snatched through vote rigging and vote robbery. We’ve registered our protest against it peacefully. No such incident took place earlier. Why have these incidents happened all of a sudden?”

Prince said their party thinks the ruling party did it to divert people’s attention to a different direction from the government’s continuous failures to run the country, check widespread corruption, plundering, vote-rigging and growing rape incidents across the country. “BNP isn’t involved in these incidents in any way.”

He alleged that police picked up Chhatra Dal vice president Mostafizur Rahman from Khamarbari area and Habiganj Chhatra Dal leader Mizanur Rahman from Nayapaltan area on Friday. “But the law enforcers aren’t acknowledging their detention.”

The BNP leader demanded the two 'detained' Chhatra Dal leaders be produced before the public immediately.

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