Jamaat-AL ties historic, ours electoral, Khaleda tells Indian media

Khaleda Zia has said the ruling Awami League has “a long history of close relations” with Jamaat-e-Islami and other extremist religious groups.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 24 Oct 2014, 10:54 AM
Updated : 24 Oct 2014, 11:25 AM

“Our alliance with Jamaat is only an electoral understanding. It is by no means an ideological one,” the BNP chairperson said in an interview to Indian newspaper The Times of India.

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She was replying to a question on whether the alliance with Jamaat will be a hindrance to fostering the BNP's ties with the ruling BJP in India.
She said her party would always set its own policies.
“We will do all that is needed to ensure the welfare of our people in close collaboration with our neighbours and other friends in the international community.
“Our relations with BJP will be fostered in that light,” she said.
She, however, gave no details to back her claim of the Awami League having a long history of close relations with the Jamaat and other extremist religious groups.
Jamaat leaders are currently facing trial for their war crimes against humanity in the 1971 Liberation War when the party, as a branch of Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami, sided with Bangladesh’s enemy.
The ruling Awami League began the war crimes trial in 2009 after returning to power.
The BNP chief, in the interview, also expressed her scepticism about the policy of India’s new government under Narendra Modi.
She also saw no hope of having the pending Teesta water-sharing and land boundary agreement ratification issues resolved under the present dispensation in Dhaka.
“The present dispensation in Dhaka lacks any legitimacy and hence is not in any position to speak for the people of Bangladesh.
“Nobody even takes them seriously, let alone engages them in any serious negotiations,” she said, having boycotted the Jan 5 elections that returned her rival Awami League to power for the second successive term.