The National Citizen Party (NCP) has issued a show-cause notice to its central executive member Zobairul Alam Manik for making a controversial statement in which he claimed, “We are the biggest mafia.”

The notice, signed by NCP’s Joint Office Secretary Saleh Uddin Sifat, said Zobairul’s “objectionable and organisationally inappropriate” comment came to the attention of the party’s Central Disciplinary Committee.

The remarks were made on Monday at an Eid reunion event in Chattogram’s Anwara upazila.

The statement, according to the notice, tarnished the image of the party and portrayed it negatively in the public eye.

In light of this, the party has asked Zobairul to submit a written explanation within three days to the head of the Central Disciplinary Committee, explaining why organisational action should not be taken against him for violating party discipline and damaging its reputation.

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At Monday’s event, Zobairul said, “We successfully led the July uprising. For the past 16–17 years, no one else could provide such leadership. It was a political revolution. If anyone says that the students have done their part and should now return to campuses, we would say they managed to topple a mafia in 16 years. If anyone now, with cunning, tries to become a mafia again—we will tell them, if there’s a big mafia in Bangladesh now, it is us. There’s no bigger mafia than us.”

Following the remarks, Zobairul faced widespread criticism across various quarters.

The party issued the show-cause notice just a day after the statement drew public backlash.