Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali yesterday slammed BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and son BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman’s claim that Ziaur Rahman was the first president of Bangladesh.
Talking to reporters following a programme at the Bangla Academy Auditorium, the minister said: “Even Ziaur Rahman did not claim such in his times.
“This is a low act and counter-productive for the BNP. They want to fabricate a false history. They have tried it before when they were in power,” he added.
However, it appeared that the official website of the BNP and the encyclopaedias regarding Bangladesh acknowledged Ziaur Rahman as the seventh president.
Ziaur Rahman, commander of the “Z force” during the 1971 Liberation War, was the seventh president of Bangladesh, the Banglapedia says. He later formed the BNP in 1978.
Meanwhile, replying to a query regarding low water flow in the Teesta, the foreign minister said they were waiting for the Indian election to end as it was not possible to do anything prior to that.
He, however, said a technical team from India would visit Bangladesh soon to discuss the issue at the technical level. He did not give any time frame when the technical team would come.
On the other hand, British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert W Gibson, replying to a query, said British State Minister for International Development Alan Duncan was coming to Bangladesh to look after the development projects they were running here. He also said garment workers’ safety was one of the issues the British state minister would emphasise in his visit.
