BNP-Jamaat tie only for polls, movement

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia last night said her party's relation with Jamaat-e-Islami was only for polls and movement.

She made the comments at a views exchange meeting with Jatiyatabadi Muktijoddha Dal at her Gulshan office in the capital.

Referring to AL general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam's recent comments on US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Desai Biswal, Khaleda said the ruling party leaders had become habituated to using derogatory language against BNP, and now they started doing the same to foreign guests.

Ashraf called Biswal a "minister worth two pennies". Referring to Khaleda's meeting with her, he said the two-time prime minister was seen on TV sitting like a kid in front of Biswal as if the American official would right away hand her power.

Khaleda also said the remarks of HT Imam, adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, had proved that a free and fair election was not possible under the AL government, and that BNP was right to demand a neutral election-time administration.

Pointing to the recent violence at public universities, she said Bangladesh Chhatra League had made the campuses storehouses of arms and that education atmosphere was not existing there.