Dhaka, Oct 1 (PTI) A Bangladeshi ruling party lawmaker on Thursday resigned over her alleged involvement in demolishing a popular non-profit healthcare centre, which was operating for over five decades.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawmaker Ferdousy Ahmed Mishti’s resignation letter has been accepted, leaving her reserved women seat (in Dhaka) vacant, a parliamentary secretariat spokesman said.
He said the parliament secretariat has requested the Election Commission to take the required steps to fill the vacant seat.
Officials earlier said Mishti tendered her resignation after meeting Parliament Speaker Hafizuddin Ahmed, as asked by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.
She was the joint convener of the Dhaka North unit of BNP, which was dissolved on Wednesday, six days after masked miscreants allegedly demolished Radda MCH-FP Centre structure in Mirpur in a midnight attack.
They hung a banner in the name of “Sammona Dokandar Samabaya Samiti” or “like-minded shop owners’ cooperative society”, removing the signboard of the centre, which provided healthcare services to low-income and disadvantaged people.
Home Minister Salahuddiin Ahmed said Mishti’s name appeared in an intelligence report, even though she earlier denied responsibility for the attack.
Doctors and clinic workers continued to provide limited services after a brief pause in front of the building, which was reduced to rubble.
The attack on the health centre came as civic groups and various independent reports suggest frequent acts of vandalism, looting and mob violence continue to erode public confidence.
“With the patronage of a member of parliament from a reserved seat, and in police presence, a charitable institution that provided healthcare to poor and helpless mothers and children for half a century has been destroyed,” Berlin-based Transparency International’s Bangladesh chapter director Iftekharuzzaman said.
He added that the incident took place in front of hundreds of helpless people and asked “what kind of example is the ruling party setting”.
Leading economic think tank Centre for Policy Dialogue’s (CPD) executive director Nazneen Ahmed said rising criminal activities in society were also damaging the economy and business.
Police, however, said the reports of increased incidents of extortion, land grabbing and mugging appearing in the media were “exaggerated”.
The home minister told reporters on Thursday the government would intensify coordinated drives by police and other law enforcement agencies including paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) against extortion, drug trading and other crimes.
Asked if the planned operations would be similar to that of the controversial army-led “Operation Clean Heart” launched by the previous BNP government in 2003-2004, he said the government has taken no such decision yet.
According to official records, nearly 60 people died in custody during the 85-day drive. While the government initially claimed many of them died of “heart failure”, but family members and rights groups alleged they were tortured to death. PTI AR GSP GSP
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