‘Zia initiated toxic politics in the country’
Former Supreme Court Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik yesterday at a programme blamed former President Ziaur Rahman for initiating toxic politics and his party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for patronising militant forces in the country.
“Zia masterminded Bangabandhu’s assassination and his party BNP along with its associate Jamaat dreamed of transforming the country into a Wahhabi state [fundamentalist form of Islam] by patronising militant forces later,” he claimed while speaking at a discussion at Jatiya Press Club.
Bangladesh Online Activist Forum (BOAF) organised the discussion on “Series bombing – 2005: Fundamentalism, militancy and today’s Bangladesh”.
On August 17, 2005, some 500 bombs went off at 300 locations in 63 out of 64 districts across the country, by banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
Claiming that the masterminds of such militant attacks and killers of Bangabandhu are from similar platforms, Manik demanded forming a judicial investigation commission to look into the incidents, including August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally, and to uncover the mystery behind August 15, 1975.
“Zia hatched a blueprint of Bangabandhu’s assassination in the USA in 1973, and such truth should be unveiled before the nation,” said the former justice.
Terming Zia a follower of Abdul Monem Khan -- a governor of the then East Pakistan -- he said Zia had supplied illegal arms to some students, by forming a party named “Hizbul Bahr” according to the “shape” of Monem Khan’s “terrorist organisation National Students Front” in erstwhile Pakistan.
He further urged the government to uproot all masterminds of toxic politics and militancy to build a country with the spirit of the Liberation War. “Bangladesh is a country of communal harmony, and that is the reason why the number of Hindus has increased by two percent here,” claimed the former apex court justice.
Speaking at the event, Maj Gen (retd) Md Abdur Rashid, a security analyst, stressed on the importance of a collaborative effort by people from all walks of life to combat terrorism and militancy.
With BOAF President Kabir Chowdhury Tonmoy in the chair, the discussion was addressed by security analyst Maj Gen (retd) AK Mohammad Ali Shikder and Lt Col (retd) Kazi Sajjad Ali Zahir Bir Pratik, among others.
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