The BNP yesterday said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s condolence call to party Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s office was nothing but a “farce.”
Hours after the official observation had been released, the party’s Standing Committee member Moudud Ahmed, however, said the party had not shown proper respect to the prime minister when she had gone to Khaleda’s Gulshan office to console her.
In a press release yesterday, BNP Joint Secretary General said: “We took the prime minister’s effort to meet Khaleda Zia over the death of Koko as a positive gesture. We believed that the prime minister was coming to express sympathy arising from her sense of social responsibility, keeping politics aside.
“But now that we see a case was filed against Khaleda Zia, it has become clear that the prime minister’s condolences over Koko’s death were nothing but crocodile tears.”
The BNP leader said the prime minister cannot restrain her vengeance against opposition politicians even during their grief.
“It is unprecedented. How cruel a government must be to commit such a heinous deed. The government has abandoned all the traits of humanity,” he said in the statement signed by the party’s Assistant Office Secretary Abdul Latif.
Sheikh Hasina visited Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office on Saturday to express condolences at the death of her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko but her motorcade returned to Ganabhaban, her official residence, as she found the gate of Khaleda’s office shut.
In a case filed the same day, Jatrabari police station Sub-Inspector KM Nuruzzaman named BNP chief Khaleda Zia the mastermind of an arson attack on a bus in Jatrabari in the capital.
The BNP yesterday said by filing a false case against Khaleda, who is grieving over the loss of her son, the “incumbent occupied” government has proved once again how “inhuman” it is.
“They have long been hatching conspiracies to put her [Khaleda] in jail. Sabotage with petrol bombs has been taking place over and over to detain her,” the party’s joint secretary general said through the press statement.
At least 27 people sustained burns after miscreants set a passenger bus on fire in the capital’s Jatrabari area on Friday night. The BNP-led 20-party alliance has been observing an indefinite countrywide transport blockade since January 5.
Blockade-related violence has killed at least 35 people over the last couple of weeks. Hundreds of vehicles, including those belonging to law enforcers, have been attacked and burned.
The BNP condemned the inclusion of Khaleda’s name in the Jatrabari bus arson case.
The BNP statement repeatedly claimed that government agents had been committing acts of sabotage with the aim of redirecting anger against the government towards the BNP.
“To create a negative view of the ongoing movement, false cases have been filed against Begum Zia and other leaders,” Rizvi said.
He claimed that the government had done everything possible to harass Khaleda by evicting her from her residence, filing false cases against her and her sons and keeping her sons away from her. “But even after that it could not repress the nationalist force.”
Rizvi reiterated that no one with “evil designs” would be able to make any difference as the people had already taken to the streets.
“Peaceful hartal and blockade will continue until the movement reaches its destination of restoring democracy.”
The party demanded withdrawal of the cases filed against the chairperson.
Sympathising with the burn victims and their families, Rizvi demanded immediate arrest of the real culprits and attackers.
Moudud’s statement
“The prime minister was not treated with proper courtesy but our chairperson was completely in the dark about this. She was in an unconscious state at the time. Even we failed to meet her,” Moudud told reporters at the Gulshan office yesterday.
He said the main gate of the office was under lock and key and BNP leaders were not aware of it.
“As the chairperson’s room was bolted, the news of the prime minster’s arrival did not reach her,” he added.
