BNP trying to come to power using Israeli intelligence force Mossad: Shahriar Alam

The state minister for foreign affairs has said that the government has evidence that the BNP is trying to come to power by using the Israeli intelligence force Mossad, which he termed a “big crime”.

Md Shahriar Alam also said if the government put together all the evidence, it would be “good enough to ban the BNP”.

The state minister made the claim on Tuesday, a day after bdnews24.com reported that Pakistan had been lobbying in favour of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s politics at the Commonwealth.
 
Alam said Bangladesh was not present at that Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group’s (CMAG) meeting, “but we found the authenticity (of the news) from the other participating countries”.
 
“It proves that the BNP is now depending on foreigners, having lost support in Bangladesh”.
 
The state minister was replying to questions at his office after his meeting with the visiting Swedish Minister of Justice and Migration, Morgan Johansson.
 
His comments on the BNP’s links with Mossad come in the wake of the recent killings in Bangladesh of secular bloggers, online activists, teachers, minorities and even LGBT rights activists.
 
The ISIL has reportedly been claiming responsibility for many of those murders, though the government has denied the presence of the radical group in Bangladesh.
 
Some ministers have also said that the ISIL issue is a ploy of the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami alliance, which boycotted the last parliamentary elections.
 
State minister Alam said the BNP was trying to prove that Bangladesh is “a fanatical Muslim country”, using Mossad.

“They also tried to assure them (Mossad) that if they (BNP) come to power, they will improve relations with Israel. This is such a big offense!” 
 
Bangladesh maintains diplomatic relations with all countries except Israel. Dhaka is also vocal against Israeli atrocities in Palestine.
 
“We cannot think of relations with Israel,” the state minister said.
 
On Pakistan’s lobbying in favour of the BNP chairperson, he noted that the development was significant.
 
“They (BNP) are relentless in their attempts to cause embarrassment for Bangladesh. They are continuously conspiring against Bangladesh,” he said, adding that “the Jamaat’s veil had been uncovered before. As time goes on, the BNP’s mask is also being unveiled”.
 
Sartaj Aziz, the Pakistan prime minister’s advisor on foreign affairs, raised the Bangladesh issue at the recent CMAG meeting in London and said the last election had not been “a proper election” as it was held amid a boycott by the BNP.
 
He told the CMAG meeting that the Bangladesh government had filed “33 politically motivated” cases against Khaleda, and insisted that the ministerial meet include the issues in a statement. But the other member states rejected the proposal.
 
Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan in 1971 through a nine-month war of liberation. The Jamaat-e-Islami, which collaborated with the Pakistan army during the war, is a close political ally of the BNP.

The state minister said the time had come “to put all that evidence (of conspiracies) together to decide whether the BNP has any right to do politics in Bangladesh”.
 
He urged the Prime Minister to take steps in this regard.
 
He said the BNP had no trust in the people of the country, and that is why it had resorted to seeking help from foreigners.
 
“Their (the BNP leadership’s) future does not depend on the people of this country. They think their future depends on those countries with whom they were trying to harm Bangladesh”.
 
“I think if someone raises his voice to demand a ban on the BNP for being a party of war criminals, it would not be illogical”.
 
He, however, said the government was working with all friendly countries, except Israel, so that the BNP did not succeed in its conspiracy.