BNP men engaged in clashes without standing by people: Hasan

Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud Wednesday said the BNP leaders and activists are engaged in clashes even amid the ongoing coronavirus situation without standing by the country's people. "Instead of standing by the people and helping them (during the ongoing pandemic), the BNP men went to the so-called grave of Ziaur Rahman in Chandrima Udyan yesterday and fought in the name of placing flowers and threw brickbats at police," he told a meeting here.

Film producers, distributors, directors and artistes arranged the meeting at the Zahir Raihan Colour Lab Auditorium of Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC), marking the National Mourning Day, a ministry press release said.

Hasan, also the Awami League joint general secretary, inaugurated an Oxygen Bank there for the COVID-19 treatment for the people working in the film industry. Speaking as the chief guest, he said the yesterday's incident was an exhibition of the fact that the BNP could not get out of the politics of terror even during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Paying homage to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and those were killed in the August 15 carnage, the information minister said he was grateful to Khorshed Alam Khasru, Ananta Jalil,

Mashiur Rahman, Chunnu, Mausumi, Omar Sunny and others of the film industry who took the initiative to set up the Oxygen Bank on the occasion of the National Mourning Day. He said the way the whole world is stunned today due to the Coronavirus pandemic and everyone is now able to realise how helpless the people are to the microscopic virus.

"This helplessness is such that money-wealth does not work to this end. As a citizen and a cabinet member, I am grateful to those who have extended their helping hands to others during this time (pandemic)," Hasan said.

He said Bangladesh is in a batter position in dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic than many developed countries as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taken time-befitting and proper measures to address the crisis.

The information minister said the premier has announced that about 80 percent people of the country will be brought under the Covid-19 vaccine coverage and around two crore of them have already been inoculated.

As per the directives of the prime minister, he said, AL leaders and workers of all levels have stood by the country's people, while more than 130 AL lawmakers were infected with coronavirus in standing beside them and some of them died of COVID-19.

"Nobody witnessed so many deaths in Jatiya Sangsad in the past. Five members of the 81-member Bangladesh Awami League Central Committee died. About half of the cabinet members have been infected with Coronavirus once or twice. I was infected with the virus two times. But I have never stayed at home amid the coronavirus (pandemic), not a single day," Hasan added.

Chaired by film producer and director Khurshed Alam Khasru, the meeting was addressed, among others, by Umme Fatema Nazma Begum Sheuly Azad, MP, BFDC managing director Nuzhat Yasmin, film personalities

Abdul Latif Bachchu, Shah Alam Kiran and Mushfiqur Rahman Gulzar, film actors Mausumi, Omar Sunny, Ananta Jali and Nipun, and Bangabandhu Sangskritik Jote general secretary Arun Sarkar Rana.