Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia cast doubts on the number of Liberation War martyrs because of her love for Pakistan.
Published : 11 Jan 2016, 04:58 PM
She made the remark at an Awami League rally held at Suhrawardy Udyan in Dhaka to commemorate Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s homecoming in January 1972.
Hasina said, “Pakistan is in her (Khaleda’s) heart. That’s why she can’t forget them.”
She held BNP founder and Khaleda’s husband Ziaur Rahman responsible for the political rehabilitation of the local collaborators of the Pakistan army after the Liberation War.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman returned home on Jan 10, 1972 from solitary confinement in Pakistan’s Mianwali jail, where he had been taken after the Pakistan army cracked down in Bangladesh on March 25, 1971, twenty four days after Bangladesh’s birth at the end of a nine-month-long war for independence.
Various programmes were organised to observe the Homecoming Day on Sunday, but the rally was deferred by a day as the Akheri Munajat of the Bishwa Ijtema coincided with the anniversary.
The rally began at around 2:30pm with readings from religious texts.
Police cordoned off the road from Shahbagh to Matsya Bhaban because of the gathering, causing severe traffic congestions on nearby thoroughfares.
Awami League Presidium members Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim and Matia Chowdhury, Advisory Council members Suranjit Sengupta and Amir Hossain Amu addressed the rally, among others.