Dhaka: Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Thursday arranged a doa and milad mahfil (special prayer) seeking eternal peace for the departed soul of slain publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan.

The programme was held on the ground floor of the party’s Nayapaltan central office after Zohr prayers.

In a brief address prior to the prayer programme, BNP spokesman Asaduzzaman Ripon said Dipan had no direct involvement with BNP’s politics, but he was a follower of the ideals of its founder Ziaur Rahman.  

He said Dipan was vice president of BNP’s associate organization Zia Memorial Library. ‘We strongly denounce his murder.’

He alleged that the country’s people are passing their days in panic as an unusual situation has been prevailing in the country.  

The BNP spokesman said extremism emerges for absence of political civilities and lack of democracy, accountability and the rule of law.

He said all parties must now work together to overcome the crisis the nation is facing now. ‘Division will not help get rid of it.’

About the recent secret killings, he urged the government to shun its blame game realising the real scenario of the country.  

Faisal Arefin Dipan, 45, proprietor of Jagriti publication house, was stabbed to death by miscreants on the second floor of Aziz Super Market in the city’s Shahbagh area on Saturday.