City polls not to affect cases against Khaleda, Information Minister Inu says

The cases against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia over instigating violence will continue even if the party takes part in city corporation polls, Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu has said.

Kushtia Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 21 March 2015, 12:57 PM
Updated : 21 March 2015, 01:16 PM

“I welcome you (Khaleda) to take part in the elections. But you will not be spared from cases over arson,” he said after a programme in Kushtia on Saturday.

Ruling Awami League has asked the BNP to take part in the upcoming elections in Dhaka and Chittagong.

Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu said earlier in the day that the government wanted BNP in the polls.

Over 120 people have been killed in violence during an indefinite blockade called by BNP over two and a half months ago for the demand of snap general election.

BNP chief Khaleda has been accused in several cases over burning people alive in fire-bombings of vehicles. She has been charged with instigating the acts of violence.

Inu said Khaleda Zia was ‘conducting planned killings like those in 1971’.

“So, whether she boycotts or takes part in the elections, she will not be spared from the cases of arson,” he said.

He said the BNP chief would not be able to conduct activities of a ‘razakar’ (collaborator of Pakistani forces during the 1971 Liberation War) while living in Bangladesh.

“Such dual policy cannot continue in Bangladesh,” Inu told reporters after inaugurating a new building of a local school at his constituency in Kushtia.