Mamun and Dipjal, for example, have been on the run ever since. The joint forces have been frantically ploughing through all over the nation to capture these members of so-called young BNP and associates. With this call, the BNP, once again, has signalled that it is not yet ready to dismantle the criminal wing of the party.

This publicly announced call by the BNP is nothing but an act of defiance (and arrogance?) against the present establishment, and certainly a move against the welfare of the nation. This move, no doubt, is the last stone engrafted to the roadmap of BNP self-destruction which commenced five years back.

There is no need to repeat how a once popular and a promising party like the BNP reached this point in 2007. However, the time has come to reminisce how, step by step and year after year, this party embraced self-destruction, in turn putting the 15-year-old democratic movement into jeopardy.

Moreover, it is well known at home and abroad that Bengalis are an intelligent lot, however, having short memory. I am sure the readers will agree with the former without hesitation, but some would strongly disagree with the latter. With this in mind I would like to remind the readers how a once popular party has surrendered to self-destruction.

One wonders, is this assessment necessary now, when the BNP's agenda for the 2007 election 2007 has been thrown into the Bay of Bengal? I will come to this point in a minute. Before this, let us briefly see how this party reached the stage where it has been in recent days and weeks.

If we go back to the period before the 2001 election, the BNP's forming an alliance with Islamists, and with various splinter groups of JP, was the beginning of the end of BNP's own identity.

Its philosophy and force, established over the years, as an alternative to AL in national politics, have been damaged forever. The BNP's marriage with two anti-people parties (Jamaat and JP) to fight the 2001 election against the incumbent AL was a move which proved to be unnecessary (HM Ershad severed all links with the 4-party coalition before the 2001 election). The outcome of this marriage was rosy, since the BNP-led alliance captured two-thirds majority in parliament and claimed a landslide victory against the AL in 2001.

There is no need to repeat how a minor partner of the 4-party alliance had been running much of the show from 2001 to 2006. This resulted in increased intra-party feuds between the two major factions of the party, progressives and hard-liners.

Subsequently, the BNP has been fractured further and, finally, the birth of LDP has been taken place at the expense of some founding leaders. In the process, the party has lost its image as a party of tolerance, a formidable force to counter the mighty AL, and above all, lost the support of the middle-class society.

Finally, the hard-liners steered the party, with the support of Hawa Bhaban, towards engaging in a face-to-face bloody clash with the grand alliance on January 22. The rest of the story is well known. Khaleda Zia's divide and rule philosophy within the party forum has been found to be the mother of all self-destructions.

Coming back to the question raised earlier, the readers would have noticed that nowadays the print and electronic media have been flooded with commentaries and advice for the new CTG, on subjects ranging from clearing the air on the election time-table to unlawful grabbing of Gulshan Lake.

Certainly, some of these issues are very urgent and need immediate attention of the new establishment, but for the new CTG, having financial and infrastructural limitations, it is impossible to go for everything in one go. It is better to take them one at a time, and first things first.

Having said that, the CTG has most appropriately prioritised the task of purging criminal wings of the political forces to dismantle, once for all, the anchors of cadres and godfathers in party politics. In today's Bangladesh, in my view, this is the number one menace. At this moment the nation desires from the new CTG not to leave this task half done.

The godfathers and criminal wings of political parties must go. Without doing this, it would be impossible to create an environment for a free, fair and fearless election. The godfathers have taken shelter in tens and thousands of holes around the nation, at the direction of their masters. These holes must either be sealed air-tight, or be smoked out. This type of purging, however, is not new in Bangladesh. Unfortunately, in the past, the work had been left half done due to the intervention of some invisible beings.

This time also some have started making noises for holding election within 90 days of declaration of emergency or as soon as possible thereafter, leaving the cleaning up jobs for the elected government. The mess created during the last five years cannot simply be wiped out completely within such a short period of time. The nation has complete faith in the new CA and has given thumbs up to his inaugural speech.

The CA must see his mission accomplished on his own terms, and not in the politicians' terms, since neither he nor the army created this mess over the last five years.

In conclusion, I must say, the peace-loving people of Bangladesh should call upon the BNP high command to accept the ground reality, and retract its policy of protecting the criminal wing of the party. They must hand over the criminals and godfathers, including Mamun and Dipjal, to the joint forces. The sooner they do this, the better for the future of democracy.

There is no room for denying the fact that the BNP's hard-line faction, together with Islamist elements, must be held responsible for democracy's predicament in today's Bangladesh. These are the people who wanted to hold a unilateral election on January 22 that led to the emergency.

Dr Moazzem Hossain is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.