Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday advised BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to ask her “spoiled” son Tarique Rahman to watch his mouth while giving statements.
“Otherwise the people of the country will teach him a befitting lesson,” she said in the wake of Tarique’s statement in London on Monday that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a razakar.
A number of leaders of the ruling Awami League and prominent citizens also vented anger and grievances over Tarique’s comment, terming him insane.
“The people of Bangladesh will never accept such derogatory lies,” Sheikh Hasina said, reports the BSS.
She was addressing a discussion organised by Bangladesh Awami League at the Krishibid Institution marking Victory Day.
On Tarique, the senior vice-chairman of the BNP which was rehabilitated and is now an ally to anti-liberation forces, Hasina said: “Being uneducated, how can he know the history of the Liberation War?
“Since he is not educated and civilised, he talks rubbish like an uncivilised person. The people of Bangladesh know how to teach the uncivilised a lesson.”
Hasina said the mastermind of the barbaric August 21 grenade attack and other killings during the rule of the BNP-Jamaat government must be held and the criminals would be brought to book like the war criminals.
The prime minister said all verdicts against the war criminals would be executed one after the other. Nobody would be able to help the war criminals escape the judicial process.
Criticising Khaleda for dodging court appearance in two graft cases, she said: “If you are so honest, why are you afraid of facing the court? The behaviour of her lawyers in the court is also unprecedented in a civilised country.”
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed yesterday said Tarique’s comments were nothing but a mad man’s delirium.
“Our political career started at the grass-roots level and we gradually climbed up to today’s positions, but this is not the practice any more. So, anyone can say anything,” Tofail told reporters after a meeting with Robert Gibson, the British high commissioner in Dhaka, at the secretariat.
“Ziaur Rahman would often visit Bangabandhu but Khaleda Zia never accompanied him. So, Bangabandhu once asked him [Zia] to bring Khaleda Zia. Bangabandhu helped to bridge the gap between Khaleda and Zia – he [Mujib] was such a great leader.
“But Tarique Rahman is talking like an imbecile. Such people should not have any right to do politics.”
Renowned columnist Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury termed Tarique insane. “Calling him half insane would be an honour for him.”
Addressing a discussion at the Dhaka Reporters Unity, the veteran journalist said: “Tarique Rahman is holding meetings with Jamaat-e-Islami men and spending millions of pounds abroad but could not hold a programme in the country...Let him scream because his shouting could not harm Bangabandhu.”
Gaffar Chowdhury claimed that he had once visited the Zia residence and “saw him [Zia] beating Tarique with a belt. Begum Khaleda Zia was standing beside Tarique. He [Tarique] had been expelled from Shaheen College for teasing a girl.”
Regarding AK Khandakar’s claim that Bangabandhu had said “Joy Pakistan” in his historic March 7 speech, Gaffar said: “It is wrong. Bangabandhu did not say Joy Pakistan...Whenever Bangabandhu thought necessary to use the word Pakistan in the speech, he said East Pakistan or Bangladesh.”
He also said: “Some people misled AK Khandakar. Those who misled are not from Jamaat-e-Islami, they are our people. I do not want to mention their names. They did it for privileges. They have pathological hatred for Bangabandhu, Awami League and Sheikh Hasina.”
Tarique Rahman termed Bangladesh’s architect Bangabandhu a “razakar” at a programme organised by the London chapter of the BNP to mark Victory Day in London on Monday.
The BNP senior vice-chairman, who is wanted in several corruption and criminal cases in Bangladesh and has been in exile for six years, has been giving distorted versions of the history of Bangladesh since the January 5 national election this year. The BNP boycotted the poll and failed to resist it despite months of violent and bloody street protests.
Tarique claimed that it was now clear to all that Sheikh Mujib and his family had no contribution in the Liberation War.
He also claimed that Sheikh Mujib – who the BNP affiliates refuse to call Bangabandhu – never wanted to see an independent Bangladesh.
“It is Mujib who is to be held responsible for the losses. And we call him a razakar after analysing facts. When we called him Pakbandhu [friend of Pakistan], we did that on the basis of facts,” Tarique said.
Awami League advisory council members Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed and Suranjit Sengupta, Presidium members Matia Chowdhury and Fazlul Karim Selim, among others, took part in the discussion at the Krishibid Institution. Deputy Leader of the Jatiya Sangsad and Awami League Presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury presided over the programme.
General Secretary of Awami League Dhaka City unit Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Awami League joint secretaries Mahbub ul Alam Hanif and Dipu Moni, organising secretaries Ahmed Hossain and AFM Bahauddin Nasim and senior party leader advocate Quamrul Islam also spoke on the occasion.
Publicity Secretary of the party Dr Hasan Mahmud and Deputy Publicity Secretary Asim Kumar Ukil conducted the meeting.
