Anti-govt movement aims to protect war criminals: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the people of the country will not respond to the BNP-led 20-party alliance's ongoing anti-government movement aimed at protecting war criminals.  

“During this month of victory [day], BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia along with anti-liberation forces the Razakars, Al-Badr and Al-shams have been threatening anti-government movements to save the war criminals,” she said.

Hasina, also president of ruling Awami League, made the remarks while addressing a discussion marking Martyred Intellectual Day at the auditorium of Krishibid Institute in the capital.

AL Presidium Member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury chaired the discussion.

The premier castigated the BNP chief for keeping Jamaat-Shibir men by her side during a  rally in Narayanganj on Saturday.

“With whom did she [Khaleda Zia] speak at the rally a day before the Martyred Intellectual Day? Who were at her side? They were Jamaat-Shibir men,” Hasina said.

Mujibur Rahman, nayeb-e-amir of Jamaat-e-Islam, spoke at the 20-party alliance rally amidst a large showdown by Jamaat-Shibir activists carrying placards, festoons, balloons, and banners. They demanded the immediate release of Jamaat leaders facing war crimes trials. 

The AL chief said Khaleda, her party and Jamaat-e-Islami were responsible for all killings in the country from 1975 to  the present time including the 21 August grenade attack.

Terming the BNP-Jamaat alliance an agent party of Pakistan, Hasina called on people to remain alert so that this alliance could not come to power and resort to killings and torture like they did after assuming office in 2001.

The premier reminded everyone that BNP founder Ziaur Rahman had rewarded the self-confessed killers of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by rehabilitating them in politics and providing them with diplomatic posts in Bangladesh missions broad.

Khaleda Zia made razakars ministers and let them use the national flag on their cars, Hasina said adding that her party would not allow anyone to demean the national flag.

“If necessary I will shed my own blood,” she said.  

The prime minister alleged that the BNP-Jamaat alliance is conspiring to turn Bangladesh into a failed state and called upon the people to foil this plot.

Senior AL leaders Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta, AFM Bahauddin Nasim, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, and Sujit Roy Nandi, and Dr Nuzhat Chowdhury, daughter of Martyred Intellectual Dr Alim Chowdhury and Towhid Reza Noor, son of journalist Sirajuddin Hossain, also a Martyred Intellectual also spoke at the discussion.   

While recalling her father Nuzhat Chowdhury broke down in tears at a point, creating a heart rending silence in the auditorium.