Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader talks too much about irrelevant issues, remarked Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Wednesday.

He further said that the government already has the list that Obaidul Quader has asked for 6 million leaders and workers of BNP, who have been implicated in different cases.

Rizvi said this in a press conference on Wednesday, marking the 12th anniversary of the disappearance of former BNP organising secretary Ilias Ali.

This press conference was organised at the central office of BNP in the capital’s Naya Paltan area.

Rizvi stated that the government, formed without any vote, made many people victims of enforced disappearance, and killed and kidnapped many others. The United Nations sent a list of such people to the government but the government could not provide any proper answer to that.

“We have learned from the media that Awami League general secretary Mr. Obaidul Quader has been asking for a list from the BNP. What list is he asking for? A list was given earlier,” Rizvi said.

“You (the government) already have the list. The law, the court, and the police - every institution is under your grip,” he added.

He termed Obaidul Quader as a man with weak nerves, idle brain and weak heart and that is why “he talks too much about irrelevant issues”.

Rizvi mentioned that the members of law and order forces picked up Ilias Ali and his driver Ansar Ali from in front of South Point School and College on road No. 2 in the capital’s Banani on the night of 17 April 2012.

He claimed that none but the government has made Ilias Ali disappear. Ilias Ali was a dangerous figure for the government and forces beyond the border as he led a mass movement in the Sylhet region against the government, the construction of Tipaimukh Dam and the border aggression, Rizi stated.

The BNP senior joint secretary general further said the Awami League has been using enforced disappearance as a weapon to instil fear, panic and sense of lack of security among the people. “Their prime target is to uproot all the dissenting voices.”

Rizvi also expressed concerns as BNP’s central executive committee’s co-voluntary activities affairs secretary Abdul Qadir Bhuiyan Jewel, who has been convicted “illegally in a trumped up case”, was not granted bail.