Yunus, TIB must apologise for Padma bridge conspiracy: AL

The ruling Awami League today said Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) and some local intellectuals must apologise for their conspiracy to stop World Bank’s financing in the Padma bridge project. 

“They must make unconditional apology,” Hasan Mahmud, AL publicity affairs secretary, came up with the formal reaction after a meeting at the party chief Sheikh Hasina’s Dhanmondi office in Dhaka.

Yunus has sent an e-mail to a high official of US asking him not to fund the Padma bridge project, Mahmud alleged.

Alongside, TIB, several local intellectuals and media personalities were busy to prove corruption in the bridge project, he added.

WB has stood aside from financing in the bridge project and Bangladesh has been affected financially due to their evil efforts, the AL leader said.

“They were engaged in hatching an anti-state conspiracy. Dignity of Bangladesh has been tarnished abroad. They will have to book for justice and the government will think about the issue,” he added.

About the BNP’s stance after a Canadian court dismissed the bribery case linked to the Padma bridge project, he said the party (BNP) does not trust in courts whether it is a local or foreign one.

In June 2012, the World Bank cancelled its $1.2 billion credit for the Padma bridge project, saying it had proof of a "corruption conspiracy" involving Bangladeshi officials, executives of a Canadian firm and some individuals.

On February 10, a Canadian court dismissed an international bribery case linked to the project at the prosecution's request.