Tarique summoned for calling Mujib ‘Pakbandhu’

This Star file photo shows BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman addressing a seminar at Queen Mary University in London on August 24.

A Dhaka court today summoned BNP Senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman asking him to appear before it on December 10 in connection with a case filed against him on charge of calling Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman a “Pakbandhu (Friend of Pakistan)”.

Metropolitan Magistrate Judge Rezaul Karim came up with the order hours after Monir Khan, assistant secretary of Awami League central sub-committee, filed the case against him with the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate.

On September 29, Tarique at the discussion held at York Hall in East London termed Sheikh Mujib a “Pakbandhu”.

“Sheikh Mujibur Rahman cannot be the Father of the Nation. He returned to the country with a Pakistani passport. Someone who accepts Pakistani passport even after Bangladesh's independence is a citizen of that country in the eyes of the law,” Tarique said at the programme.

"One day it will have to be explained how a Pakistani citizen became a president or prime minister of Bangladesh," the BNP leader warned.