Bangladesh: Ershad detention an arranged drama, says Manna

Dhaka, Dec 14 (The New Age): Nagarik Oikya convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna on Friday said that the government has staged an arranged drama in the name of picking up Jatiya Party chairman Hussein Muhammad Ershad by law enforcers.
Addressing a press conference at Shishu Kalyan Parishad auditorium at Segunbagicha, he said that the government had staged the drama to compel Jatiya Party to take part in the coming general elections.
Rapid Action Battalion on Thursday midnight picked up Ershad from his ‘President Park’ residence in Baridhara and got him admitted in Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka.
Manna said Nagarik Oikya will continue its movements for free, fair and credible participatory general elections.
They would also condemn the anarchy of the opposition parties in the name of movement to restore the system of caretaker government, he said.
The organisation announced a programme to end the current political unrest and establish peace by observing one-minute abstention from work at 12 noon on December 29.
Nagarik Oikya urged the democracy loving people to observe the programme in the capital and every divisional cities.
The central leaders of the organisation Abu Bakar Siddique, Shahidullah Kaiser, Iftekher Ahmed Babu and Shafiqur Rahman Hiru attended the press conference.