Tarique asked to apologise for calling Bangabandhu ‘Razakar’

BNP senior vice chairman and chairperson's elder son Tarique Rahman speaking at a discussion programme in East London's The Atrium on Monday. Photo: Star

A Supreme Court lawyer today sent a legal notice to BNP senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman asking him to apologise unconditionally to the nation for calling Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman a “Razakar, murderer and Pakbandhu" (friend of Pakistan).

Advocate Momtazuddin Ahmed Mehedi sent the notice saying that Tarique reportedly told at a BNP meeting in London on Monday that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had accepted Yahiya Khan as the president and compromised with him immediate before declaration of Bangladesh’s independence.

He said in the legal notice that Tarique has claimed his father Ziaur Rahman as declarer of Independence and the first president.

Tarique Rahman has damaged the history of Independence and the ideology and spirit of the Liberation War achieved through the blood of 30 lakh martyrs by terming Bangabandhu as “Razakar”, he said in the notice.

“You have established yourself as talkative, stupid, immature and cunning fox by making such indecent statements devoid of political norms. No political culture can be found in you, although you are senior vice chairman of BNP. It is not evident from your statement that you have any knowledge about the Independence and Liberation War,” Mehedi said.

In the legal notice, Mehedi asked Tarique to withdraw the “unnecessary, unconstitutional and bigheaded statements” within seven days.

Otherwise, civil and criminal cases will be filed against him, the SC lawyer said.

In another outrageous comment on Bangabandhu, Tarique in London 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.

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 Pakbandhu?”

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.