Recent murders aim to foil war crimes trials, says Prime Minister Hasina

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said a spate of recent ‘murders’ had been planned to foil the trials of war crimes committed Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971.

She came up with the statement while talking to expatriate Bangladeshis in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, on Thursday evening.
 
“A certain quarter commits such stray murders whenever the trial of any war criminal reaches the final stage,” her Deputy Press Secretary Nazrul Islam quoted the prime minister as telling the non-resident Bangladeshis.
 
Two foreign nationals, several clerics, bloggers, writers and a publisher were killed in the last two years.
 

Islam told reporters after the meeting that Hasina had said her government was committed to ensuring security of all citizens, irrespective of their caste and creed. 

She said the government had begun the trials of the ‘recent murders’.

The prime minister told the NRBs that the government had firmly handled the violence unleashed by the BNP and its key ally the Jamaat-e-Islami before and during the last national election and on its first anniversary.

“They (BNP and Jamaat) carried out the acts of sabotage and burned people only to save the war criminals and to foil the Jan 5, 2014 election,” the press secretary quoted her as saying.

He said the expatriates had thanked the prime minister for going ahead with the war crimes trials.

At the meeting, the expatriates drew the prime minister’s attention to various problems they were facing in Bulgaria.

Hasina said a consulate would be opened in Sofia to solve such problems.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumi were present at the meeting, among others.