Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali has slammed BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia for her claim that Ziaur Rahman was the first president of Bangladesh.
“Even Ziaur Rahman did not claim such when he was the president,” Mahmud Ali said on Saturday morning at a programme in the capital.
“This is low for the BNP. They want to fabricate a false history. They have tried it before when they were in power,” he added.
The comments came in the backdrop of Khaleda Zia and her elder son Tarique Rahman, also the senior vice chairman of BNP, claiming Ziaur Rahman the first president of Bangladesh.
However, it appeared that the official website of BNP and encyclopaedias regarding Bangladesh acknowledged Ziaur Rahman as the seventh president.
Ziaur Rahman, commander of the Z force during Liberation War, was the seventh president of Bangladesh, Banglapedia says. He later formed BNP in 1978.