BNP founder Ziaur Rahman had acted as a spy for Pakistan during Bangladesh’s War of Independence, said Awami League Publicity and Publication Secretary Hasan Mahmud yesterday.
‘We have the document that he was a Pakistani spy,” he said, showing a letter to the audience while speaking as the chief guest at a discussion at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity in the capital.
The former minister added that this letter had been written to Ziaur Rahman by then Brigadier General Aslam Beg of the Pakistan Army during the Liberation War.
“We are happy with your activities; don’t be worried about your wife and children,” he read out the letter.
Awami League Joint General Secretary Jahangir Kabir Nanak made a similar claim at a press conference in Dhanmandi on Monday. He also showed a letter at the time, which Beg had written to Zia, according to him.
Former state minister Quamrul Islam, who is now the country’s food minister, made a similar claim in 2010. The BNP had labelled his claim as baseless and challenged him to prove it.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Advisor on ICT Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed, better known as Joy, last month termed Zia a Pakistani agent in disguise during the country’s Liberation War.
Joy had also labelled the BNP as a party of collaborators, saying “the party collaborates with Jamaat-e-Islami and opposes the trial of the war criminals.”
The BNP has a long-standing alliance with the Jamaat, of which top leaders are already convicted or now put on trial for their crimes against humanity during the War of Liberation. Even the BNP has a few leaders convicted for the same crimes.