PM to Khaleda: Leave the side of war criminals

Sheikh Hasina has urged Khaleda Zia to sever ties with the Jamaat-e-Islami, the party accused of committing war crimes to stop the emergence of Bangladesh.

The BNP chief, who boycotted the Jan 5 general election, has been demanding a snap election supervised by a ‘neutral’ caretaker government.

But Prime Minister Hasina has rejected the demand, saying the BNP and its allies should prepare for the next general election due in five years’ time.

Last month, the Awami League president snubbed the BNP's call for talks over an interim election.

Appreciating the BNP chief's efforts to launch a movement with the people, she said at a rally on Monday, "But you have to cut ties with militancy, terrorism and war criminals. There's no place for them on this soil."

Most of the top leaders of the BNP's ally Jamaat have either been convicted or are on trial for war crimes.

War crimes convicts Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed served as ministers in Khaleda's 2001-6 cabinet.

Hasina had asked her arch political rival to dissociate herself from the Jamaat before the Jan 5 polls.

The Awami League chief said the BNP's ties with the Jamaat had turned out to be a 'double-edge sword' for Khaleda.

She questioned the BNP's claim that it was a 'party of freedom fighters', citing rehabilitation of war criminals during its founder Ziaur Rahman and later, Khaleda's terms.

"Ziaur Rahman made war criminal Abdul Alim a minister and Shah Azizur Rahman, who opposed Bangladesh's independence at the UN, prime minister when he came to power.

"You've (Khaleda) been crying your heart out claiming your husband proclaimed independence.

"How could he make war criminals ministers, rehabilitate them on this soil if he were the proclaimer of independence?" she said at an Awami League rally in Dhaka, marking the Jail Killing Day.

Trying suspected war criminals was an electoral pledge of Hasina's Awami League. Her government initiated trials in 2010 by setting up a special tribunal. Another one was set up later to expedite the process.

Hasina reiterated her vow to try suspected war criminals and execute the verdicts.

She criticised the Jamaat for enforcing shutdowns against the conviction of its leaders for war crimes.

"Why does Jamaat call for strikes? Did they forget [that they would be tried for their crimes when] they killed people, raped mothers and sisters, committed genocide and sided with Pakistan army?

"In that case, they (the war criminals) should have gone to Pakistan. Why are they polluting Bangladesh's soil?" the prime minister asked.