If BNP does excess, Khaleda Zia will be sent to jail again: PM

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Prime Minister and Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina today sounded a note of warning that Khaleda Zia would be sent to jail again if the BNP goes superfluous in the name of anti-government movement.

“If BNP does excess, Khaleda Zia will be sent to jail again,” she said while presiding over a discussion marking the Jail Killing Day organised by the Awami League at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) here in the capital.

Sheikh Hasina said the illegally formed political parties are now doing excesses in the name of movements.

“We have said do your (BNP’s) meeting and procession peacefully, we will say nothing. We will not tolerate anymore, if anyone is hurt and showing audacity by bringing (bamboo) sticks (in the rallies),” she warned.

The Prime Minister said Khaleda Zia has been sentenced to 10 years in the Zia Orphanage Trust and seven years for the Zia Charitable Trust corruption cases which were filed by the caretaker government and is now staying in her house as the government on humanitarian ground allowed it after halting her sentences.

“But, what is their (BNP’s) condition today. They have to rescue democracy. The party, which was created from the pocket of a military dictator, who assumed power illegally, my question is how the party would rescue democracy,” she said.

The Premier termed BNP as an illegal party as it was created by a military dictator Ziaur Rahman’s government as the High Court declared the government as illegal as he assumed power after violating the country’s constitution.

“BNP is an illegal party as it was formed by an illegal government,” she said, adding that the apex court also declared another military Ershad’s government as illegal.

The Prime Minister came down heavily on some people who are now echoing the voice of BNP, “My question is that where are their knowledge. Do they understand the reality?”

Sheikh Hasina also criticised some people who demanded them as intellectuals and described military dictator Ziaur Rahman as the founder of democracy.

The Prime Minister asked the so-called intellectuals how Zia could give democracy as he took power illegally and at the same time declared him as the country’s president and army chief after breaching the country’s laws and constitution and killing hundreds of armed forces officials in the name of military trials.

General Secretary of the AL and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader , MP, gave the address of welcome.

AL Presidium Members, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, MP, Engineer Mosharraf Hossain, MP, and Mofazzel Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Bir Bikram, executive committee member, Parvin Zaman Kalpana, daughter of martyred Syed Nazrul Islam, Dr Syeda Zakia Noor Lipi, MP, Dhaka South and North City AL Presidents, Abu Ahmed Monnafi and Sheikh Bazlur Rahman, also spoke.

AL Publicity and Publication Secretary Dr Abdus Sobhan Golap, MP, and his deputy Aminul Islam moderated the discussion.

At the outset of the discussion, a one minute silence was observed as a mark of respect to the martyrs of the August 15 and November 3 of 1975 massacres.

On this day in 1975, the killers of Bangabandhu stormed into the Dhaka Central Jail in the early hours and assassinated the four national leaders – Tajuddin Ahmed, Syed Nazrul Islam, Captain Monsur Ali and AHM Kamaruzzaman – who led the Liberation War in the absence of Bangabandhu in 1971 and snatched the victory for the nation.

The Day’s programme started with placing floral wreaths at the portrait of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu in front of Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi Road No 32 and martyrs of the August 15 and November 3 of 1975 at Banani Graveyard here this morning.

Sheikh Hasina once again questioned BNP’s leadership as their two top leaders Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman have been sentenced in several corruption and criminal cases.

Tarique Rahman, who was sentenced in the August 21,2004 grenade attack case, 10-truck arms haul case and a number of corruption cases, went to London after giving a bond that he would not do politics, she said.

The Prime Minister said the BNP has made Tarique Rahman as the party’s chairperson despite the party’s constitution does not allow making any person the party chief if he or she is sentenced in any case.

The Awami League alerted the country men about voting BNP like parties as they are only out to make their own fortunes by resorting to all the bad things in politics including killings and corruption.

She said her party is the only party who gives the people something whenever assuming power, as they are working for giving the countrymen an improved and beautiful life being inspired by the ideal of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

The Prime Minister asked her party leaders and activists to reach all information regarding her government’s huge development works carried out across the country in the last 13 years at every doorsteps as the national election is knocking at the door.

“We will bring the people’s vote in favour of the boat by winning the hearts of the people. The countrymen do not want the violent environment anymore, rather peace and development. So, the people of the country want AL in power as they get peace, development and progress if AL assumes power,” she said.

The Premier asked the countrymen to think what would be happened with them if the looting, corrupt, terrorist, militant BNP will come to the power.

She questioned where the BNP was when the country hit by the Coronavirus pandemic.

“It is not so easy for the BNP to come to power as they are dreaming for that. The countrymen don’t forget the misrule, creating militancy, unbridled corruption, looting and inhuman torture during the BNP government. The people of the country are with the Awami League,” she said.

The Prime Minister once again said that Ziaur Rahman was directly involved in the killings of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members on August 15 in 1975 and the killings of four national leaders inside the Dhaka Central Jail on November 3 the same year.

She said that they (Zia and his accomplices) first tried to portray the killings of Bangabandhu and his family members as a killing of a family, but the killing inside the jail killing had proved that it was a political and idealistic killing as they wanted to make Bangladesh Pakistan again.

The Premier heavily criticised Zia, Ershad and Khaleda Zia for rehabilitating the killers of Bangabandhu and war criminals in politics by making them cabinet members, lawmakers and advisers. (BSS)