We have evidence on BNP’s lobbying against country, Hasan Mahmud says

Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud on Friday said the government has specific evidence of BNP appointing lobbyist farms abroad against the country.

BNP made the agreement to appoint lobbyists by using the address of their Naya Paltan office, he alleged.

He said the foreign ministry has taken initiatives to inform all the departments of the government which are investigating how much money went abroad from Bangladesh for this purpose, reports BSS.

"Of the 12 human rights organisations that have written letters to exclude RAB from UN peacekeeping missions, only two or three are known, the rest are name-based. We have not heard their names before, I do not know if you have heard them," he said.

Hasan said that this letter was given on November 7 last year, why did it suddenly come to the media after more than two months?

“There is a political motive behind it,” he added.

The minister came up with the statement while addressing a view exchanging meeting with members of Chattogram University Journalists’ Association (CUJA) at the conference room of Chattogram Circuit house in the city on Friday noon.

Vice President of Chattogram North District Awami League Abul Kashem Chishti, former Chairman of Rangunia Upazila Parishad Muhammad Ali Shah, CUJA president Imran Hossain and its general secretary Monowar Riyad Munna were present on the occasion.

He said, “BNP is hatching conspiracies against Bangladesh to stop the country’s ongoing development and progress and to create barriers to export trade through appointing lobbyist farms in many countries to hinder the prosperity of the country.”

The AL Joint Secretary said BNP has no confidence on the country’s people, so they have chosen the path of conspiracy and hired lobbyist firms abroad spending illegal money to conduct propaganda against Bangladesh.

He said the recruitment of lobbyist farms abroad has been chosen as one of the main tools in that conspiracy. “When a political party is involved in conspires against the country, the question arises as to whether they have the right to do politics in that country,” he added.

When State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam informed the issue to the parliament then the reaction of BNP started.

Hasan said the BNP was silent for a few days after emerging the issue because when someone commits a crime when his misdeeds are exposed, he loses his sense or temper initially.

 “You know, BNP hired an FBI agent to assassinate Sajib Wazed Joy, the ICT adviser to the Prime Minister, through BNP leaders stationed in the United States," he said.

The minister said later the FBI agent was facing quarries in the United States and he is now under trial.

 “BNP leader Aslam Chowdhury had a meeting with an Israeli agent, which was published in newspapers with pictures of the meeting. BNP-Jamaat hired lobbyists to stop the trial of war criminals, can BNP deny these? When their misdeeds came out today, they were talking as nonsense to cover their misdeeds, nothing more,” Hasan added.

Hasan said, "the law is being enacted on the formation of the Election Commission according to the demand of political parties during the President's dialogue called for the formation of the Election Commission."

"The government has taken the initiative to enact a law according to the demand but BNP describe that the whole process is political," he said.

 “TIB works only on corruption. But this matter has no connection with corruption. TIB has proved that they work for political purposes by making statements on political issues. This statement of TIB is similar to the statement of BNP. This proves that TIB often acts as a political tool. I myself was surprised to see TIB's statement on political issues,” the Information Minister said.

Hassan Mahmoud said he had seen Amnesty International make statements on behalf of war criminals to protect them.

 “Human Rights Watch (HRW) has lobbied in various ways to protect war criminals. However, in response to Israeli shelling, Israeli forces indiscriminately shot and killed women and children in Palestine, but no such statement was made by HRW over the incident”, he said.

He said that these organisations do not make any statement even when such human rights are being violated in other parts of the world including the countries where they work. All these organisations have already lost their credibility. So their call to exclude RAB from the UN peacekeeping mission is not very important.