None has power to prevent national polls: Salahuddin

NETRAKONA, Aug 30 (BSS): BNP Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed has said the national elections must be held within the stipulated time, asserting that no one has the power to prevent the polls.
"Despite various conspiracies surrounding the elections, they are expected to be held before next Ramadan, with the people of the country committed to safeguarding the elections," he told the inaugural session of the district BNP triennial council at the historic Moktarpara ground in the district town on Saturday.
Salahuddin said more than three thousand people have been victims of extrajudicial killing until the 2024 Student Uprising.
A massive number of people become victims of enforced disappearances, murders and political torture, he said.
According to the UN, more than 1,400 people embraced martyrdom in the 2024 Mass Uprising while more than twenty thousand were injured.
"We have gone through such state injustice," he said.
Highlighting his own experience, he said, "I was a victim of enforced disappearance. I was forced to live in exile for almost ten years, a significant part of my long life. In our politics, Bangladesh comes first and last. Our purpose, politics and focus are all for Bangladesh first, Bangladesh first and foremost."
Salahuddin said, "We will not have any master abroad, we will have friends abroad. The people of this country
have proven with their blood that no one from this country can abolish democracy."
As a result of the Mass Uprising, the fascist forces were forever overthrown from Bangladesh, he said.
District BNP Convener Professor Dr. Md. Anwarul Haque chaired the programme while Chairperson's Advisory Council member Syed Alamgir, BNP Joint Secretary General Habib Un Nabi Khan Sohel, Organizing Secretary Md. Shariful Alam, Legal Affairs Secretary Barrister Kaiser Kamal, former State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfuzzaman Babar, among others, spoke.
Netrakona town was decorated with banners and festoons marking the triennial conference organized after a long 11 years.
After the first session, direct voting of 1,515 councillors is underway in the election of president and general secretary.
According to party sources, the last district BNP conference was held on October 25, 2014.
In that conference, freedom fighter Md. Ashraf Uddin Khan was elected president, Professor Dr. Md. Anwarul Haque was elected general secretary and SM Moniruzzaman Dudu was elected organizing secretary.
Later, as the term of the committee expired, the district committee was dissolved and a 67-member convening committee was formed. Dr. Md. Anwarul Haque was the convener and Dr. Md. Rafiqul Islam Hilali was the member secretary.
Meanwhile, BNP senior leader Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan has said the people of the country will not accept any attack on Gono Odhikar Parishad President Nurul Haque Nur.
"Nurul Haque Nur's position on the streets is clear. The people of this country cannot and will not accept such an attack on him," he said while talking to reporters after visiting Nur at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) on Saturday.
Moyeen, a BNP Standing Committee Member, strongly condemned the attack and called for an immediate investigation into the incident.
He visited Nur in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of DMCH and spoke with doctors about his condition.
Earlier in the morning, BNP Health Affairs Secretary Dr Rafiqul Islam also visited Nur and confirmed that a medical board had been set up for his treatment.
DMCH Director Brigadier General Md Asaduzzaman said Nur's condition is now stable.
"He has suffered an injury above his eye along with a minor brain haemorrhage. He was brought to the hospital at night, where doctors initially examined him at the casualty department before transferring him to the ICU," he told reporters.
The director also said a six-member medical board was formed on Friday night to oversee Nur's treatment.
"His current condition is stable, but we cannot say he is out of danger until at least 48 hours have passed. We hope the bleeding in his brain will heal with medication," he said.
According to the hospital authorities, the medical board includes specialists from anaesthesia, casualty, ENT, neurosurgery and ophthalmology departments.
Nur is now under the care of Dr Zahid Raihan, a neurosurgeon at the hospital.
On Friday evening, clashes broke out between leaders and activists of Jatiya Party and Gono Odhikar Parishad when a procession from the latter passed by the Jatiya Party office in Kakrail.
Gono Odhikar Parishad claimed that several of their activists, including Nur, were injured when law enforcement officers charged batons during the incident.