BNP rubbishes claim on Khaleda’s assets in Saudi Arabia

The property said to be owned by BNP chief Khaleda Zia and her family in Saudi Arabia does not exist, says the party.

Some media outlets in Bangladesh have recently reported that an anti-graft investigation in Saudi Arabia has revealed that the former prime minister and her family members own assets in the kingdom.

“These are all baseless. The property doesn’t exist in the first place,” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said on Monday.

The Bangladesh media outlets cited reports by ‘Global Intelligence Network’ and ‘Canadian TV channel The National or GIN’, but no news providers with these names have been found on the internet.

A programme on Canada’s state media is titled ‘The National’, but no report on Khaleda was found there. GIN is a business intelligence agency of Symantec, not a media outlet.

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader said on Sunday that the BNP found itself in a fix after Khaleda and her son Tarique Rahman’s names came up in the Saudi crackdown on graft, which saw several princes and former ministers detained.

Referring to the ruling party leader’s comments, Mirza Fakhrul said on Monday: “We have already told the government to come up with proof.”

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also referred to Khaleda’s assets in Saudi Arabia during a media briefing on Thursday.

She was clearly unhappy over the media’s silence on the issue and went on to ask whether journalists had any financial interest in not reporting it.

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