The Opposition Leader in Parliament and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is trying to kill the democracy, alleged Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina.
The premier made the allegation in an interview with The Times published on Saturday.
Hasina said: “She [Khaleda] is trying to kill democracy.”
“She is trying to create obstacles that stop people exercising their democratic right. A military dictator’s wife acts like a military dictator’s wife,” she added.
Robin Pagnamenta, South Asia Correspondent for The Times, interviewed the Prime Minister at her official residence Ganabhaban in Dhaka.
Hasina blamed her arch-rival’s supporters for fomenting terrorism and refusing to negotiate a way out of the country’s deepening political crisis, reads the Times interview.
She insisted that elections would go ahead as planned on Sunday.
“We completed our five-year term and it is a constitutional obligation to hold an election,” Sheikh Hasina said. She blamed Khaleda Zia for the deadlock that has led to months of strikes and rioting.
Sheikh Hasina rejected claims that her security forces had embarked on a heavy-handed crackdown on political opponents, which has included Khaleda’s effective house arrest. Dozens of police are stationed outside her home in Dhaka, with lorries stopping vehicles entering or leaving her street.
“Over the past 12 months, Bangladesh has been lurching steadily deeper into crisis, compounded by a crackdown on political dissent and a number of fires and disasters in the $22 billion garment industry, which makes up nearly 80 per cent of exports and employs four million people. Garment orders for Bangladesh fell by 40 per cent in October as foreign buyers sought alternatives,” reads the story.
Months of strikes and riots have paralysed the country’s road network.
With one poll in the Dhaka Tribune on Friday suggesting that 77 per cent of voters believe an election is not viable without the BNP, the prospect of military intervention is unlikely to lure back foreign investors.