ZCZC
BSS-44
HASAN-PRAYER-BNP
BNP does not tolerate people keeping up livelihoods, offer prayers: Hasan
CHATTOGRAM, May 20, 2020 (BSS)- Criticising BNP’s refusal to accept good
steps of the government, Awami League joint general secretary and information
minister Dr Hasan Mahmud today said BNP cannot perhaps tolerate that some
small shopkeepers are opening their respective shops for earning livelihoods
and people are going to mosques to offer prayers due to some relaxation of
the lockdown.
“Probably, the BNP cannot tolerate to see people happy who work hard to
protect their livelihoods and go to mosques to offer prayers. That is why,
BNP leaders, including Mirza Fakhrul, are criticizing these good steps of the
government,” Dr Hashan said.
Turning down the comment of Mirza Fakrul that the government has made a
terrible mistake by relaxing the lockdown, Dr Hassan said Bangabandhu’s
daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has relaxed the lockdown so that people
can go to mosques and offer prayers while maintaining physical distancing.
Earlier, after the outbreak of the corona virus, our mosques were used to
offer prayers in the presence of a limited number of people, he added.
“Due to the relaxation of the lockdown, the small shopkeepers of the
country are getting a way to feed their children by selling something and
hence a chance to make a living. While the BNP leaders are criticizing them,
it seems that they are not tolerating them,” Dr Hasan added.
The information minister made the comments while addressing a video
conference at the Rangunia Upazila Awami League office on Wednesday while
distributing Iftar and Eid gifts among about 1,500 Imam Muazzins of more than
700 mosques of his constituency (Rangunia and a union of Boalkhali upazila).
These Iftar and Eid items were distributed through his family
organization- the NNK Foundation- at the personal initiative of the
information minister.
NNK Foundation director Khaled Mahmud presided over the function while
Rangunia Pourshova Mayor Shahjahan Siqdar, General Secretary of Rangunia
upazila AL Engineer Shamsul Alam Talukder, upazila AL Religious Secretary
Jashim Uddin Talukder, AL leaders Master Abdur Roaf, Emrul Karim Rashed,
Kamal Uddin Chowdhury and Maolana Ayub Nuri and Imam and Muazzins of
different mosques of Rangunia upazila participated in the video conferencing.
Participating in the video conferencing from the capital Dhaka, Dr Hasan
requested the BNP to work together to protect the people shunning the path of
criticism.
He said lockdowns were being relaxed in various states in India where more
than 100 people are dying every day.
“Considering the lives and livelihoods of the people, lockdowns are also
being relaxed in various European countries where hundreds of people are
still dying every day. But in our country lockdown has been relaxed a bit,”
he added .
He said the Prime Minister is working not only to save the lives of the
people of Bangladesh but also to save their livelihoods. Under her
leadership, the government is working to protect both the lives and
livelihoods of the people of the country, he added.
“In the country there are millions of working people who depend on daily
earnings. Considering their condition, the Prime Minister decided to relax
the lockdown by allowing to open some shops a few days ago. At the same time,
people have been repeatedly requested to maintain physical distancing and
adhere to hygiene rules” he added.
However, BNP leaders, including Mirza Fakhrul, have criticized the
government failing to tolerate these positive steps, he said.
Dr. Hasan said that Sheikh Hasina had taken various steps from the
beginning of Corona virus outbreak to protect the people of the country.
In addition to providing health care to the people of Bangladesh, she
started the largest relief operation in the history of the country so that
the working people of the country do not suffer in the event of a lockdown
and it is still continuing, he said.
Already, more than one third of the country’s people have come under the
government relief assistance, he added.
At the same time, Awami League and its leaders and activists and members of
parliament provided relief assistance to more than one crore people
throughout the country, he said.
The information minister said Bangabandhu’s daughter Sheikh Hasina has
already given government grants to almost all Qawmi madrasas in the country
considering the plight of the country’s scholars and ulema.
Following the government initiatives, Iftar and Eid gifts have been
distributed among the imams and muezzins of all the mosques in my
constituency- Rangunia- and Boalkhali partially through my personal
initiative under the NNK Foundation, he added.
The information minister requested Imams and Muazzins to pray for the
country and the people of the world so that the country will be freed from
coronavirus and the people of the world could return to their normal life.
BSS/MAM/KS/KU/2001 HRS