DHAKA, May 24, 2024 (BSS) -Awami League (AL) General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader today said offenders must be brought to justice no matter how influential they are.

"The government has taken zero tolerance policy to this end," he said while exchanging views with journalists at the AL's Bangabandhu Avenue central office here.

Quader said no matter how influential a person is, if he or she commits crimes. The question is whether the government has shown its honesty and courage to bring him or her to justice, he added.
 
The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has that courage and no offender would be spared, he said.

He said the country's judiciary and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) are independent and if someone is found to be a criminal there, the government will not give protection to the person even if he or she is a former inspector general of police (IGP) or former army chief.

Anyone found involved in wrongdoings will be brought to justice, he asserted.

The AL general secretary said those who were convicted in BUET's Abrar killing case were all Chhatra League men but the government did not give them protection.

The government did not give protection to anyone too after Biswajit's murder, he said, adding: "A person can commit crimes. But why will the government give him or her protection? We consider wrongdoers as wrongdoers no matter how powerful he or she is. If a person commits offenses, he or she must be punished."

Referring to a statement of BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir that the ruling AL government is running misrule and oppression, Quader said Mirza Fakhrul's mental trauma seems to have reached a terrible level.

"He (Fakhrul) and his party leaders are far away from the reality. They failed in movement. They have lost all. Their friends also do not give them courage like before," he said.

Quader said over 42 percent of the country's people cast their votes in the last general elections and this rate is satisfactory compared to other countries.

In the 15 February elections held during the BNP regime, the BBC reported that its voter turnout was only 5 percent, while the then Election Commission (EC) reported that the turnout was 21 percent, he said.

In the first phase of the upazila elections, the AL general secretary said, the EC reported that the voter turnout was more than 36 percent, while over 37 percent in the second phase.

AL Joint General Secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim, Organising Secretaries Ahmad Hossain, BM Mozammel Haque and Sujit Roy Nandi, Liberation War Affairs Secretary Mrinal Kanti Das, Publicity and Publication Secretary Dr Abdus Sobhan Golap, Office Secretary Barrister Biplab Barua and Deputy Office Secretary Sayem Khan were, among others, present at the meeting.