Ishraque Hossain has announced that he will resign as state minister for Liberation War affairs amid controversy over an armed anti-drug operation.
The son of former Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka made the announcement in a Facebook post at 8:36am on Monday.
Ishraque, the Dhaka-6 MP, wrote: “I will make the final announcement of my resignation as state minister at the National Press Club at 2pm [on Monday] and face journalists.”
The move follows a storm of criticism after Ishraque posted videos on his Facebook page on Saturday showing him with a pistol, chasing suspects during a drive in Gendaria.
In one video, he was seen taking part in the operation with a firearm in his hand. Another showed several people being handcuffed and taken away by police.
A day after the armed drive set off a storm of criticism, Shafiqul Islam, head of the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), said: “What you have seen, we have seen too. The local deputy commissioner has been told to look into the whole incident and submit a report.
“If there has been any breach of law, the DMP will certainly take legal action.”
On Sunday night, several media outlets reported that Prime Minister Tarique Rahman had directed Ishraque to resign.
Many Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leaders and activists shared the reports on Facebook.
Expressing his displeasure, Ishraque wrote on Facebook that he had seen some members of so-called civil society celebrating the news.
“I hope that if the need for a movement or struggle ever arises in the future, they will be inspired by nationalist ideals and return home from abroad to join it,” he wrote.
Ishraque, a member of the BNP's international affairs committee, said he would continue his anti-drug work with greater enthusiasm, no longer as an MP or state minister but as a BNP activist.
He also pledged to intensify cleanliness drives and visit different districts to strengthen the organisational network of the Jatiotabadi Projonmo Dal.
"Eradication of drugs, not the minister!” he wrote.
Resignation Over Health Centre Attack
Ferdousy Ahmed Mishti, a BNP MP on a reserved seat, resigned on Oct 1.
She stepped down on the prime minister’s orders after her name came up in connection with an attack, looting, vandalism and attempted seizure of the Radda MCH-FP Centre in Dhaka’s Mirpur.
The assault on the Radda health centre in Mirpur Section 1 took place late on Sept 24.
About 200 men armed with local weapons and heavy equipment stormed in and flattened a tin-shed and three part-brick buildings.
They smashed the doors and windows of five rooms in the brick building, including the ultrasound room, vaccination room and laboratory.
The attackers carted off all the furniture, medicines, an ultrasound machine, a generator, computers, printers, a fridge, air conditioners and cupboards.
Radda authorities allege the total damage exceeded Tk 10 million.