AL has nothing to do with Yunus verdict: Quader

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader today said Prof Muhammad Yunus was sentenced to six months' imprisonment by the court, and Awami League had nothing to do with the verdict.

Responding to a question about the jail sentence, Quader, the road transport and bridges minister, said, "Dr Yunus was convicted by the court. Awami League has no role here. The workers, who have been deprived of their dues, have filed the case. Why is the Awami League government being criticised here?"

Quader made the remarks at a press conference at the AL President's political office in Dhaka's Dhanmondi.

Terming BNP's leaflet-distribution programme ahead of the January 7 national election as "mysterious", he asked the leaders and activists to get prepared to face any situation.

"BNP has been holding some very mysterious programme. Reports have published that the leaflets will be distributed till January 4. But some alarming information has been coming out," he said.

"BNP is now maintaining silence in the name of distributing leaflets. But suddenly they will appear in the field being armed. There are enough reasons to be suspicious about them. They can suddenly resort to launch clandestine attacks. I heard that they are preparing for this."

He opined that the January 7 election is very important to strengthen democracy.

"The campaign is going on all over the country. The presence of people at public meetings is noticeable," he said.

"Candidates from a total of 28 political parties are participating in the election. I think this is enough for a participatory election. Hope the polls will be fair and peaceful. There is an element of unrest though," the AL general secretary said.

"Bus, trains have been set on fire already, so that the people get scared and do not go to cast votes. That's why BNP is carrying out the terrorist activities," Quader added.

"The election will be held on January 7 after five years. No matter how many obstacles are there ... The election cannot be thwarted in any way," he said.

Nobel Laureate Prof Yunus and three other top officials of Grameen Telecom were yesterday sentenced to six months' imprisonment in a labour law violation case.

On September 9, 2021, Labour Inspector (General) SM Arifuzzaman filed the case against Yunus and the three others.

The case was filed after the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) officials inspected the Grameen Telecom office on August 16 of that year and, according to case documents, found several labour law violations.