Read Bangabandhu’s books while in prison: Menon to Khaleda

Workers Party President Rashed Khan Menon has advised BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to read the diary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from his time in prison, during her own incarceration over the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

The ally of the ruling Awami League made the remarks at a conference organised by the Bastohara League at the National Press Club on Saturday.

“They should send Khaleda a copy of Bangabandhu’s journal from his time in prison,” he said. “Maybe then she will understand the political situation and condition of the prisons of that time.”

Menon, the social welfare minister, said the BNP chief was experiencing the ‘luxuries of home’, including a domestic helper, in prison.

The BNP says she has been kept in ‘solitary confinement’ in an old jailhouse on Nazimuddin Road since the verdict in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

But Awami League leaders say she has been given more allowances than she is owed.

The BNP has also claimed the verdict in the case was ‘forced’ by the government.

“Khaleda Zia is pro-Pakistan,” Menon said. “Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lost his post over corruption. Leaders all across the world are tried for corruption. There is nothing unusual in Khaleda Zia being tried and jailed for corruption.”

The Workers Party president warned that the BNP would create a horrifying situation if it returned to power.

“The BNP will start a massacre if it ever returns to power because the government has struck at the party’s very heart through the war crimes trials, the trials of Bangabandhu’s killers and the perpetrators of the Aug 21 grenade attack.”