Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has claimed that BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s curse works as a blessing for Bangladesh and also for the Awami League.
“When Khaleda Zia curses Bangladesh it works as a blessing for Bangladesh. She finds everything illegal as her party was once illegally formed by assuming power through illegal means,” Hasina said yesterday while addressing a rally at the capital’s Suhrawardy Udyan to mark the Jail Killing Day.
Mourning the killings of four national leaders inside Dhaka Central Jail in 1975, the prime minister said Bangladesh would ensure justice for every killing and complete the trial of all war criminals.
“It was our commitment to the people to try the culprits of 1971 for their crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. We have begun their trial and execution of the verdicts has started. We will implement all judgements Insha Allah on this country’s soil to free the nation from stigma,” she said.
The premier called upon Khaleda to cut ties with war criminals, terrorists and militants, saying there will be no place for them in the country.
“It is good to wage movement along with the people. But you will have to sever ties with terrorists, militants and war criminals and there will be no room for them on this country’s soil,” she said.
In this connection, Hasina mentioned the silent role of the BNP chief and compared her present condition to a snake with a frog stuck in its mouth. “The snake neither can swallow nor release it, and Khaleda Zia can neither speak in favour of the trial nor can she oppose it.”
Hasina, also the Awami League president, said Bangabandhu had begun trying the alleged war criminals after the Liberation War. But after the assassination of Bangabandhu, Ziaur Rahman attempted to destroy all the achievements, distort the history and values of the bloodstained war.
The premier said: “Zia not only did that, he rewarded the killers of Bangabandhu and those who acted against the Liberation War...The military dictator rewarded the killers by providing them with lucrative posts.”
The dictators, who subsequently emerged following the killing of Bangabandhu and the four leaders, rewarded the killers by politically rehabilitating them, even making them ministers, Hasina said.
“Soon after the killing of the national leaders, the country came under the reign of the killers,” she said, adding that Zia had politically empowered the killers by bringing them back to the country. Hasina not only Zia but also Ershad sheltered the killers of Bangabandhu.
Hasina alleged that the political parties formed by dictators always disrupted the development initiatives undertaken by any Awami League government.
During the tenure of Khaleda, the BNP ruined the country with corruption as it ran a parallel government based in the so-called Hawa Bhaban, Hasina said. She also questioned how the Zia family could have amassed such an amount of money if not by corrupt means.
