Hasina bashes Kamal Hossain for allying himself with Tarique, BNP

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has criticised Dr Kamal Hossain for ‘accepting the leadership’ of Tarique Rahman, who has been convicted in the Aug 21 grenade attack case.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 14 Oct 2018, 12:28 PM
Updated : 14 Oct 2018, 09:08 PM

The Awami League president made the remarks during a rally with members of her party’s Madaripur unit on Sunday.

“Today I would like to congratulate Kamal Hossain. He has formed an alliance. With whom?”

“He talks big, criticising corruption, crimes and money laundering. The BNP and Jamaat are crooks. But now he has formed an alliance with them.”

Gono Forum chief Dr Kamal Hossain gestures at BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir at a rally of the Jatiya Oikya Prokriya in Dhaka on Aug 22, 2018.

The Jatiya Oikya Front, led by Kamal Hossain, was formed on Saturday to call for the Eleventh National Parliamentary Election to be held under an impartial election-time government. The BNP has joined the anti-government alliance.

Three days before the new alliance was announced, BNP Senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman was sentenced to life in prison in connection with the Aug 21 grenade attack.

The son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is also sentenced to jail in a money laundering case and has been sentenced to jail over the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

“Killers, people who burn others alive, the corrupt, those who steal money from orphans. He forms an alliance with them,” Hasina said.

“Some other minor people have joined in as well. That is their alliance.”

Photo: Yasin Kabir Joy

Photo: Yasin Kabir Joy

Former Awami League leader Kamal Hossain’s alliance was also joined by ASM Abdur Rab’s JSD and Mahmudur Rahman Manna’s Nagorik Oikya.

Rab, who was a member of the Bangladesh Chhatra League and later joined JSD, was a minister under the 1996-2000 Hasina government. Manna is also a former organising secretary of the Awami League.

The Kamal-led alliance left out its previous ally, Bikalpadhara led by AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury as cracks opened among splinter groups.