Hasina says Khaleda’s security personnel provoked attacks on her motorcade

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has blamed Khaleda Zia’s security personnel for the attacks on the BNP chairperson’s motorcade during the city polls campaign.

Hasina said the former prime minister’s security personnel had provoked the people.
 
She showed three photos to buttress her assertion at a press conference at Ganabhaban on Sunday.
 
Just about two hours before the prime minister’s press conference, Khaleda had held hers at her office in Gulshan.
 
The BNP chief said pro-government activists, provoked by the prime minister and other ministers, had attacked her motorcade with the ‘intent to kill her’.
 
The former prime minister was attacked at Karwan Bazar, Fakirapool and Bangla Motor while campaigning for her party-backed city corporation poll candidates.
 
The prime minister showed three photos taken just before the attacks.
 
One of them showed how a vehicle of Khaleda’s security personnel was running over the leg of a man.
 
Hasina said the photo was taken before the attack at Bangla Motor on Apr 22.
 
BNP leaders and activists call Khaleda’s security personnel Chairperson’s Security Force (CSF).
 
In the photo taken at Karwan Bazar, a CSF member, brandishing a pistol, was seen standing on the footrest of Khaleda’s car.
 
A similar photo showed a member of the CSF with a shotgun at Fakirapool.
 
Showing the photos, Hasina said people were agitated by the behaviour of the CSF members and attacked Khaleda’s motorcade.
 
Pro-government activists planned to show the BNP chief black flags whenever she appeared in protest against the killings during a blockade she called.
 
They did so at Uttara last week when Khaleda went there to campaign for Dhaka North City Corporation mayor contender Tabith Awal.

Hasina said CSF members assaulted people at Uttara. This sparked a series of attacks the following day.
 
“Will people sit and watch when security men grabbed them by the collar?” the prime minister asked.
 
The prime minister criticised the media for not publishing those photos.
 
“You (journalist) showed people’s wrath marking them with red circles after (Khaleda’s car ran over them). Did you mark BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami leaders similarly when they torched buses?” she asked.
 
Referring to the city corporation polls code of conduct, the prime minister said the BNP chairperson violated the code.
 
“Are the journalists publishing reports on Khaleda Zia’s violation of the code of conduct by campaigning with a convoy of vehicles?” she asked again.
 
Hasina said there were 96 microbuses and 186 motorbikes in Khaleda’s motorcade.
 
She went on to ask, “The public vandalised her car and you are expressing your sympathies. But where was your sympathy when hundreds of public vehicles were vandalised?”
 
She was asked whether the government had any plans to form a separate commission to try the saboteurs. 
 
Hasina said the government was committed to trying not only the saboteurs but also those who ordered and funded the violence.
 
“They should face exemplary punishment that would serve as a deterrent,” she said.