BNP chief Khaleda has utterly failed in movement, PM Hasina says

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has utterly failed in the agitation to bring her government down, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said.

Speaking at a Independence Day discussion on Friday, Hasina said the BNP chief’s enthusiasm to continue push ahead with the 81-day-long movement had dropped.

“She could not do what she wanted. Now she has turned her face away. Who she is looking at?” she asked.

More than 120 people have been killed in violence during an indefinite transport blockade called by the BNP-led coalition on Jan 5.

Khaleda has been staying at her office after being barred by police to leave on Jan 3 amidst tension over programmes on Jan 5.

The blockade seems to have no effect on life now. BNP leaders are also collecting nomination papers and preparing for the city corporation polls slated forApr 28.

The prime minister criticised her fierce foe for not visiting the Central Shaheed Minar on Feb 21 and the National Memorial on Mar 26.

“She (Khaleda) has insulted the Language Movement and the Independence Day,” Hasina said.

She also asked officials to make a list of distinguished personalities who skipped paying respect to the martyrs of 1971 Liberation War at the National Memorial.

Referring to the killings in BNP’s agitations, Hasina said, “Wherever I had looked at after the curfew had been withdrawn on Mar 27, 1971, I saw bodies. Khaleda Zia is burning people alive in the same way. It is as horrible as genocide.”
 
“Those who have least humanity, how could they support and vote for BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami? Those who speak and write for BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, have they ever been to the burns unit to see the pain of those who burned?”
 
The prime minister also asked what kind of politics it was to be preoccupied about protecting human rights of killers.
 
She dismissed allegation of BNP leaders that their chief was confined to her office. 
 
“She has not been confined. She won’t come out before killing me.”
 
Hasina was wary of attempts to assassinate her. 
 
“I came under attack. I know I will have to face attack again,” she said.