TIB: Extortion culture threatens BNP’s anti-corruption pledge

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has voiced deep concern over three recent incidents it says point to a worrying pattern of extortion and encroachment involving sections of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
In a statement issued on Sunday, TIB cited reports that the RADDA Mother and Child Health-Family Planning (MCH-FP) Centre was looted, vandalised and encroached upon at midnight, allegedly in the presence of police and with the support of a reserved-seat lawmaker. 
It also referred to a clash within the local BNP over control of a jalmahal (water body) in Kishoreganj that left more than fifty people injured, and separately, the vandalism of a content creator's office.
TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the RADDA incident was "an embarrassing example for the government and the ruling party," noting that the organisation had provided healthcare to underprivileged mothers and children for fifty years before being "demolished before hundreds of people, under the patronage of a reserved-seat Member of Parliament and in the presence of police."

He said the party had received "a historic electoral mandate following the violent July uprising that overthrew an authoritarian kleptocracy," and questioned whether BNP policymakers had considered the consequences of continued encroachment by their leaders and activists.
Dr Iftekharuzzaman said allegations of extortion and encroachment by sections of BNP leaders and activists had persisted since August 2024, citing incidents at bus terminals in Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet and Khulna, as well as at markets, water bodies, sand mills and in cable, internet and waste collection businesses. He said a government minister had repeatedly described extortion as "not corruption, but a negotiated transaction," adding that no action had followed that remark.
TIB said the incidents were not isolated but risked overshadowing the government's achievements. 
Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the party must honour its anti-corruption commitments and pursue self-purification "right now," warning that failure to act could leave it unable to control such incidents in future.
The statement noted that some misconduct had prompted senior party leaders to take organisational measures, including expulsion, though it said stronger preventive strategies were lacking. 
TIB called for a thorough, prompt investigation into each incident and exemplary punishment for those responsible.

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