Tarique this time calls Bangabandhu a razakar
In another outrageous comment on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, BNP senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman termed him “a big Razakar” for having banned the Awami League after the liberation of Bangladesh.
"The Awami League claims that it's a pro-liberation party but Sheikh Mujib himself banned it having labeled it a party of thieves. So Sheikh Mujib himself is a big Razakar for doing something like this," Tarique said at a programme on Monday in London.
Although the Awami League existed during the war, it's not necessarily a pro-liberation party and it is clear to all like daylight that Sheikh Mujib and his family had no contribution in the 1971 Liberation War; the Awami League was not the political party that had led the independence war of Bangladesh, Tarique alleged.
“Sheikh Mujib rather got arrested on March 25 by the Pakistan occupation army through a compromise,” Tarique, elder son of BNP chief Khaleda Zia, said on the seventh day of an eight-day programme in East London organised by BNP's London unit to mark the 43rd anniversary of Bangladesh's birth.
Tarique's nearly two-hour speech took a theatrical turn when he asked the audience: “If anyone, standing in the free and sovereign soil of Bangladesh, shouts slogan for Pakistan, what would that man be called?”
The audience, most of whom were BNP men, responded saying, “Razakar.”
Tarique then pricked up his ear and said: “I can't hear, say louder.” The audience shouted louder, “Razakar.”
He then said, “I am speaking with evidence. Sheikh Mujib was a Razakar, murderer and Pakbandhu (friend of Pakistan).”
“When lakhs of people were on the battlefield, Sheikh Mujib's family was living a secure life in Dhaka with the murderer Yahya's money,” Tarique said. "So, is it wrong to call him a Pakbondhu?”
The BNP second-in-command said he had “evidence” to prove his claims and called upon the Awami League men to come up with evidence to disprove his claims.
He also said it was his father late president Ziaur Rahman who was not only "the first president" of Bangladesh but also the "first elected president" of the country, a claim he has repeated on a number of occasions since March 26 this year.
Terming Sheikh Mujib the “Lal Salu” of the AL in Bangladesh politics, he said: “The hypocrites surrounding the Lal Salu have been labeling anyone Razakar for their own interests.”
On the other hand, he lavished praise on Hossain Shahid Suhrawardy, Sher-e-Bangla AKM Fazlul Haque and Mawlana Bhasani for their political roles towards achieving East Pakistan's self-governance.
Towards the end of his speech, he called upon people to turn away from the AL whose leaders only spout lies and participate instead in the upcoming movement to be led by Khaleda Zia for saving the country and its people.
Criticising the AL for twisting the country's history for the past four decades, he urged his supporters to shout 'Razakar' whenever an AL supporter would be sighted.
His controversial speeches have triggered criticism among a cross section of people for distorting Bangladesh's history. Tarique has drawn flak for his comments from within his own party circles.
Early this month he termed Bangabandhu a “Pakbandhu" (friend of Pakistan) for which he is facing an arrest warrant from a Dhaka court after an aggrieved person filed a case against his humiliating remarks on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib.
Chaired by Shayesta Chowdhury, chief of BNP's London unit, the programme was addressed, among others, by the party's Joint Secretary General Rizvi Ahmed and BNP chairperson's adviser Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin.
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