Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to restrain her son Tarique Rahman.
Published : 17 Dec 2014, 05:51 PM
"He behaves and talks like an animal. Unless he is controlled, people will teach him a lesson," Hasina said while speaking at an Awami League event in Dhaka on Wednesday.
"Better control your disgraceful son. Or else the people of Bangladesh will not tolerate what he is doing."
Hasina's furious reaction follows Tarique describing her father and the nation's founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as a 'Razakar'.
The term Razakar is used to describe those who supported the Pakistani military in 1971 and perpetrated horrible atrocities against Bengali civilians and freedom fighters.
Hasina said justice will be meted out to those involved with the Aug 21, 2004 grenade attack.
Tarique is a prime accused in that case.
“The killers of Ivy Rahman will be tried,” Hasina said firmly. “The people of Bangladesh will not let them go scot-free. They will be tried in the same way as the war criminals are being tried.”
She blamed Tarique for the attack. “(He is the) killer of Ivy Rahman, the killer of 22 of my leaders and activists. This family continues to murder just as Zia had teamed up with (Khandker) Mushtaq (Ahmed) to assassinate Bangabandhu.”
Awami League Advisory Council member Amir Hossain Amu described Tarique’s remarks in London as a “lunatic’s diatribe”.
Suranjit Sengupta, another member of the council, warned Khaleda that her son had crossed the limit.
The BNP has repeatedly claimed that Gen Ziaur Rahman, the party’s founder and Khaleda’s late husband, had declared Bangladesh’s independence.
But Hasina wondered how Zia – if he had indeed proclaimed independence – stopped the war crimes trials.
She recalled that Shah Azizur Rahman had been the prime minister despite having sided with Pakistan during the Liberation War, and Abdul Alim, sentenced to death for war crimes, had been made a minister in the late president’s cabinet.
“On the one hand, he (Zia) installed those who were against liberation in positions of power, and, on the other, awarded the killers of Bangabandhu with jobs abroad. Ziaur Rahman was punished for his sins,” Hasina said.