Describing the reelection of Khaleda Zia as BNP chairperson and
Tarique Rahman as its senior vice chairman as a stage-managed drama,
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said now two accused are this party’s
top leaders.
“Whom they (BNP) have actually elected -- there two accused, one
(Khaleda) is an accused in a case of misappropriating orphans’ money and
another (Tarique) in the Aug 21 grenade case - and his (Tarique’s) name
is also there in Interpol’s wanted list… if this is the case, what this
party can deliver!” she wondered.
Sheikh Hasina, also the president of the ruling Awami League, was
addressing a mammoth public rally at Suhrawardy Udyan in the city
marking the historic March 7 speech of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
She alleged that Tarique Rahman has remained absconding in cases
filed against him for money laundering and corruption. "He (Tarique) is
now a senior BNP leader!"
Earlier on Sunday, Khaleda Zia has been reelected BNP chairperson
unopposed, while her son Tarique Rahman reelected the party’s senior
vice chairman before the party’s national council session.
Both of them were reelected as no one else filed nomination to contest the elections to the posts.
The Awami League organised the rally with Deputy Leader of the Parliament Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury in the chair.
The prime minister alleged that Khaleda Zia had carried out a
destructive movement with an ill motive to destroy the spirit of the
Liberation War and foil the country’s economic development.
“Why did she wage the movement? Her target was to destroy the
Liberation War spirit and halt the country’s economic development
through the movement. She can’t tolerate the progress of the country,”
she said.
“Her (Khaleda) soul always cries for her beloved Pakistan…it’s better
for her to move there (Pakistan) to relieve the people of Bangladesh,”
the prime minister told the rally.
On March 7, 1971, Bangalees' undisputed leader Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman delivered his epoch-making speech of independence before a
mammoth rally at the historic Race Course Maidan, now Suhrawardy Udyan.
In his 19-minute extempore speech before a million freedom-loving
people of the then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, Bangabandhu had made a
clarion call for a non-cooperation movement asking the nation to
prepare for the war of independence to liberate the country from the
exploitative Pakistan regime.
AL Advisory Council Member and Industries Minster Amir Hossain Amu,
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, AL Presidium Member and Agriculture
Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury, Sheikh Selim, Health Minister Mohammad
Nasim, AL General Secretary and Minister for Public Administration Syed
Ashraful Islam, AL Presidium Member and Housing and Public Works
Minister Engineer Mosharraf Hossain, AL Joint General Secretaries Mahbub
ul Alam Hanif and Dr Dipu Moni, Jahangir Kabir Nanak, AL City Unit
General Secretary and Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal
Hossain Chowdhury, AL Organising Secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim, Food
Minister Advocate Qumrul Islam, AKM Rahmatullah, MP, Dhaka North City
Corporation Mayor Annisul Huq and Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor
Sayeed Khokon, among others, spoke at the rally. AL Publicity Secretary
Dr Hasan Mahmud conducted the rally.
