AL leader Quader throws two conditions at Khaleda over national unity

The government will consider BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s call for national unity against militancy once she stops celebrating her ‘fake birthday’ on National Mourning Day and apologises for killing innocents with firebombs, a leader of the Awami League has said.

Obaidul Quader, a Presidium member of the ruling party, was speaking at a discussion organised in Dhanmondi on the 67th anniversary of Sheikh Kamal on Friday. 

Kamal is the oldest son of founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and was killed with him and most members of the family on Aug 15, 1975.
 
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana were abroad and survived the massacre by disgruntled army men. 

“We will think about her call for unity once she stops celebrating her fake birthday on Aug 15 and admits that she burnt people alive with firebombs,” said Quader, also minister for road transport and bridges. 

The BNP chairperson, an arch political rival of Hasina, called for launching a united front in the wake of the deadly terror attack which left 20, mostly foreign hostages, dead in Gulshan’s Holey Artisan Bakery on Jul 1.
 
Khaleda’s BNP, in an alliance with the Jamaat-e-Islami, is accused of killing people using firebombs during the run-up and after a year of the election it boycotted in 2014. 

“There are those who say that Awami League doesn’t want unity, but who will we unite with?” asked Quader. “Those who rewarded and rehabilitated the killers of the Bangabandhu?  

“Could you have come to any unity at this point, Khaleda Zia? I want to talk sense here.” 

“We are preparing to mourn and the BNP is getting ready to cut cakes on her fake birthday. Such brutal politics.” 

 “It is not her birthday but she still celebrates it on the day the nation’s founder was murdered.”

“I don’t understand how anyone can fight extremism together with those who nurture, encourage and practice it.” 

“Sheikh Kamal can be a role model for youths today. It will be impossible to fall into extremism if his morals are followed.” 

Kamal was born on Aug 5, 1949. Since childhood, he was drawn towards sports and culture and is the founder of Abahani Krira Chakra and Dhaka Theatre. 

Cultural group, ‘Spandan Silpi Goshti’, was also founded by Kamal who had mastered the sitar.   

He was shot dead on the ground floor of Dhanmondi’s Road 32 by a group of soldiers who then climbed up the stairs to kill Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the then president of newly liberated Bangladesh.