DHAKA, Aug 18, 2021 (BSS) - Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr
Hasan Mahmud today 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.