Khaleda fears five more years of AL rule over Hasina's India visit

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has said by signing so many agreements with India, the ruling Awami League has confirmed another five years in power.

Expressing 'deep concern', she says by the end of the next five years, a lease deed would be ready to hand over the country to India.

Khaleda was talking to a group of party leaders at her Gulshan office Sunday evening when the newly elected Supreme Court Bar Association President Advocate Joynul Abedin and re-elected General Secretary Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokan along with other elected office bearers went to meet the BNP chief.

“These (the agreements) are part of the plan about how to stay in power for another five years. Moreover, they have police and armed BCL cadres. They will be plundering state funds in next five years.”

“The civil administration is colluding with them. They don’t win elections, but they snatch the victory through coercion,” Khaleda alleged.

“We fought for this country not to become slaves. We don’t want to be shackled either. Those who have given lives for the country, their souls cannot rest in peace with this kind of slavery,” the former prime minister said.

Hasina is now in India on a four-day state visit during which she has signed as many as 22 deals covering defence, civil nuclear cooperation, cybersecurity, and business and investment. India has also approved a credit line of $5 billion.

In a similar reaction a day earlier, the BNP chief alleged that “Hasina is selling the country to India".

Among others, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Standing Committee members Moudud Ahmed, Barrister Jamiruddin Sircar, and lawyers Joynul Abedin and Mahbub Uddin Khokon spoke at the programme.