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Senior BNP leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said Kolkata-based daily Ei Samay’s report on him claiming that the Jamaat-e-Islami’s demand linked to proportional representation was a pressure tactic was “fabricated”.
Amid debate over the report on Tuesday, Fakhrul, now in New York, told bdnews24.com that the newspaper used “artificial intelligence” to produce this “false, misleading” information.
“Can any political leader make such nonsense statements? You tell me. This is deliberate. I did not say anything like that in Ei Samay.”
Recently, Ei Samay carried what it described as an interview with Fakhrul, quoting him as saying Jamaat had demanded 30 seats, but the BNP offered far fewer, which Jamaat found unacceptable.
The report also cited Fakhrul as saying, “We will not let Jamaat sit on our heads anymore. They are not such a great force; we have given them undue importance.”
In a reaction, Jamaat Secretary General Mia Golam Porwar said in a statement: “It is hard for us to believe that a senior politician like Fakhrul has made such completely false, disrespectful, and vindictive remarks. These words are devoid of both truth and courtesy.”
“If the remarks are indeed his, we are compelled to condemn and protest. At the same time, if these are his words, we call upon him to clearly present proof before the nation of when and to whom Bangladesh Jamaat made such demands for seats.”
In the interview, Fakhrul said: “PR is a strategy to pressure BNP. Jamaat is preparing for elections, announcing candidates in different places.”
When asked by Ei Samay whether he agreed with Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus’s claim that February’s polls and government formation would happen without Indian influence, Fakhrul replied: “India was an ally in the Liberation War. It sheltered 10 million refugees. Geographically, Bangladesh is surrounded by India on three sides, with the sea on one. So India’s influence will always remain. The problem is, India’s rulers have equated Bangladesh only with the Awami League.
In his response, Golam Parwar of Jamaat emphasised that the people, not Fakhrul, would judge the political party’s credibility. He added, “We trust the people and remain committed to serving the nation in pursuit of Allah’s satisfaction, calling for an end to false and misleading statements in the future.”
“Following Awami League’s line, India has wrongly bracketed the BNP with Jamaat. But our politics are not the same. We are a non-communal, centrist democratic party. We are still fighting the anti-liberation forces to uphold the Constitution earned in 1971. The leftists are with us.”
In its statement, Jamaat said Fakhrul’s disparaging language was an affront to the party’s political standing.
Porwar said, “We leave the judgment to the people’s court, in whom we have full trust. Our activities are for the nation and its people. Our ultimate aim is to earn the pleasure of Almighty Allah. We urge him to refrain from such false and misleading remarks in future.”