The home minister has hinted that the government has given go ahead to a lawyer for bringing sedition charges against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, who recently doubted the number of Liberation War martyrs.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal gave the hint after a attending an award ceremony at the Bangladesh Film Development Corporation, better known as FDC, in Dhaka yesterday.
He said his ministry had received a letter in regard and issued a guideline.
Asked whether they would arrest Khaleda, the minister said everything would be done according to the laws.
During a discussion on December 21 in Dhaka, Khaleda Zia said there were doubts about whether three million people really got killed during the 1971 Liberation War. She also alleged that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman wanted to become the prime minister of undivided Pakistan rather than leading the nation to independence.
These comments sparked massive criticism. Two days later, lawyer Momtaz Uddin Ahmed Mehedi served a legal notice to the BNP chief, asking her to issue an “unconditional apology.”
Having not got any reply, last week Mehedi filed a plea with the Home Ministry seeking clearance to file a sedition case against Khaleda. That plea has got approved recently.
A case would be filed with the metropolitan magistrate’s court of Dhaka today seeking the court’s cognisance under sections 123A and 124B of the penal code, Mehedi told reporters yesterday.
These sections deal with offences including anything in speech or in writing that goes against the state and lead to abolition of the sovereignty of Bangladesh in respect of all or any of the territories lying within its borders.
The maximum punishment for such offence is rigorous imprisonment, which may extend up to 10 years and also be liable to fine.
Saying that Khaleda’s speech was not seditious, BNP leaders said that the Bangladesh government does not have any specific information on the exact number of people killed during the war and so it was high time that such questions were raised.
They also said suing Khaleda Zia for this was part of a government conspiracy to keep her away from politics.