Tarique wants Hasina to be questioned over Zia murder

Tarique Rahman has demanded that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina should be questioned in remand to crack “the mystery” of the assassination of his father, President Ziaur Rahman.

The senior vice-chairman of the BNP made the remarks at a party programme in Malaysia on Wednesday, several leaders of the party who attended it told bdnews24.com.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s elder son apparently shot back to Hasina’s recent claim that the BNP founder was involved in the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on Aug 15, 1975.

The prime minister on June 2 had said Zia’s death had saved him and if he were alive he would have been accused of the murder of the nation’s founding father.

The BNP’s Malaysia unit organised the discussion at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur to mark Zia’s death anniversary.

It was attended by the party’s Vice-Chairman Shah Moazzem Hossain, former MP Nurul Islam Moni, Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal leader Abdus Salam Azad and former Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal leader Shahidul Islam Babul, among others.

Many senior party leaders in Bangladesh listened to Tarique’s speech at the programme on telephone.

This is the second programme Tarique attended outside the United Kingdom in past seven years. The first one was in Saudi Arabia.

The senior vice-chairman of the BNP has been living in the UK since 2008 after securing a bail from the Supreme Court.

He was arrested during the state of emergency in March 2007 on a slew of corruption charges.

Tarique is also accused in the case filed over the Aug 21, 2004 grenade attack on a rally of the Awami League.

He has been severely criticised by the ruling party leaders after at several programmes in London he claimed Zia was the first president of Bangladesh and Sheikh Mujib was an ‘illegal prime minister’.

Tarique recently also described Bangabandhu’s political career as a failure and claimed that his father, military ruler Zia, had succeeded in everything he did.

Zia, who had usurped power by clamping martial law after a few political changes since the 1975 assassination, died in 1981 in a failed military coup.

Tarique said, “Ziaur Rahman’s assassination was carried out 17 days after Sheikh Hasina returned to the country. Sheikh Hasina knew about it. Ziaur Rahman murder mystery will be solved if she is taken into remand.”

Similar remarks had come earlier been made by the BNP.

The Awami League leaders responded to that by criticising Khaleda for not taking any initiatives to hold trials over the murder while she was in power twice.

Khaleda’s elder son on Wednesday also demanded Hasina “be hanged by the neck” for the 2009 Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutiny during which over 70 people were killed.

Bangladesh Rifles was renamed Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) afterwards.

“Why Hasina who oversees the defence ministry would not be hanged for the deaths of 57 army officers who were working for BDR during the mutiny?” Tarique asked.

He also criticised death sentences to those including former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar in the case over smuggling of 10-truck arms into Chittagong in 2004.

Tarique at Wednesday’s programme in Kuala Lumpur inaugurated the BNP’s signature campaign demanding disbanding the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

His mother, Khaleda Zia, recently demanded breaking up the elite police unit claiming the government was using it to tame the opposition.

RAB was formed in March 2004, when the BNP was in power.

The BNP chairperson’s demand came after allegation surfaced that several members of the force were involved in the recent seven murders in Narayanganj.

Backing his mother’s demand, Tarique said, “The Awami League has turned RAB into a mercenary force. They are abducting and killing BNP leaders and activists.”

After RAB’s image took a battering by the seven murders, it had ‘staged’ the recovery of a huge cache of weapons and ammunition in the jungles in Habiganj, he alleged.

He took a dig at the Awami League over its way of running the country. He said the ruling party was a burden on the people.

“It is Bangladesh’s misfortune! Bangladesh’s people have always lived in insecurity under the rule of the father-daughter (Sheikh Mujib and Sheikh Hasina).”

He also called for a movement claiming the Awami League had destroyed all institutions in Bangladesh.

He sought support from the audience composed of expatriate party leaders and activists and they responded spontaneously.

Tarique along with his wife and daughter went to Kuala Lumpur from London on June 2.

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