She made the claim while addressing an Awami League rally held at the Suhrawardy Udyan in Dhaka to mark Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s homecoming day in January 1972.
Referring to the rebellion in the paramilitary force, the prime minister said, “We formed the government in 2009. Within two months, a war began not only in BDR, but also in the entire country. We took only two days to control it.”
The BNP chief often raised questions over the mutiny, she said, and asked why a new government would cause a rebellion in a force.
Hasina said, “She (Khaleda) will have to answer the question of why she went underground from the cantonment and why she left her house by7-8am (on the day of the mutiny).”
“I believe she had links to that incident,” she added.
The prime minister claimed that Khaleda’s son Tarique Rahman had phoned his mother 45 times from the UK in the early hours of the tragic day at London time to ask her to leave the house.
“Why did he ask his mother to leave her house?” She questioned.
Hasina claimed that 33 of the 57 ill-fated BDR officers hailed from pro-Awami League families.
Referring to various government efforts for Bangladesh’s development, the prime minister said, “We had pledged that we would build the Padma Bridge with our own resources. We’ve already started work on that.”
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had returned home on Jan 10 in 1972 from a Pakistani jail, 24 days after Bangladesh’s birth at the end of a nine-month war for independence.
Various programmes were organised to observe the Homecoming Day on Sunday, but the rally was deferred by a day as the Akheri Munajat of the Bishwa Ijtema fell on the same day.
Awami League Presidium members Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim and Matia Chowdhury, Advisory Council members Suranjit Sengupta and Amir Hossain Amu addressed the rally, among others.