Killing-abductions like 1971 going on: BNP

The country is seeing murder and abductions like in 1971, the BNP has claimed and has held the present Awami League-led government responsible for it.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 14 Dec 2014, 09:09 AM
Updated : 14 Dec 2014, 01:43 PM

The party, led by its Chairperson Khaleda Zia, paid homage to the intellectuals murdered during the Liberation War on Sunday at the Martyred Intellectuals' Memorial at Dhaka's Mirpur.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, BNP acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said: "Killings and abductions like in 1971 are still taking place. The martyred intellectuals dreamt of an independent and democratic Bangladesh. But what are we seeing now? The Awami League is holding on to power by force through a voter-less election.

"It's unfortunate that the same ploy to make the country meritless, which was hatched in 1971, has started again. Absence of democracy and fascism is the reason behind it."

Khaleda Zia, flanked by senior party leaders, arrived at the memorial around 10am. She placed a floral wreath at the memorial. Later, the BNP’s affiliate organisations, too, paid their respects.

Sensing a humiliating defeat, the Pakistani occupation army and their local collaborators -- Razakars, Al-Badr and Al-Shams -- abducted top-notch Bangalee intellectuals and professionals including academics, doctors, engineers, journalists and teachers from their homes in Dhaka on Dec 14, 1971.

Their bodies were then dumped at Dhaka's Mirpur and Rayer Bazar areas.

It has been proven in the verdicts of the war crimes trials that leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami were involved in the planned killing of intellectuals. The party is a key ally of the BNP.

Several people, including Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed have been sentenced to death for war crimes.

Nizami and Mujaheed served as ministers in the BNP-Jamaat coalition's 2001-06 Cabinet.