Hasina government has smuggled Tk 300 billion abroad, alleges BNP chief Khaleda

The Awami League government has secretly moved abroad Tk 300 billion in the past seven years, the BNP chief has alleged.

“They are splitting the money from big projects launched in the name of development, and smuggling it abroad,” Khaleda Zia told a rally organised by the BNP’s labour affiliate at Dhaka’s Suhrawardy Udyan on Sunday afternoon.

She claimed the ruling party was now ‘lobbying’ so that “names of its leaders do not come up in the Panama Papers”.

Revelations by the Panama Papers last month had sparked global scrutiny of offshore banking and hiding of wealth. But names of any Bangladeshis are yet to appear in the leaked data.

“They keep harping on development. But what development has they brought about? They steal more than the developmental work they do,” Khaleda said criticising the government.

The Awami League is 'forcibly' clinging on to power, she said. “They think Bangladesh is their ancestral property.”

Sheikh Hasina’s government, the former prime minister alleged, was trying to "do away" with other political parties and establish a "one-party rule".

"They are enacting new laws that will enable them to remain in power forever."

There can be no "fair election" under the present Election Commission, she said. "It is what Hasina is like."

The BNP chief also called for an intensified anti-government movement ‘driven by the lessons of May Day’.

“May Day testifies to rights won at the cost of blood. We must win our rights by following the lessons of May Day.”

This was Khaleda’s first public appearance after the BNP held its sixth National Council in March.

The last time BNP held a rally at the Suhrawardy Udyan was in January 2014.

Sunday’s rally was organised by the party’s labour affiliate Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal to mark the May Day.

The rally, presided over by Sramik Dal President Anwar Hossain, started around 1:30pm. After arriving at the venue, Khaleda took the stage around 4:15pm and started addressing the gathering around 5:10pm.

During her 51-minute-long speech, she spoke of the situation Bangladesh is going through and the law and order, condition of the working class, and ‘repression’ of opposition leaders and activists by the government.

She criticised the ‘corruption and misrule’ of the government and alleged that the prime minister’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy had hidden ‘money received from suspected source in his bank accounts’.