Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday accused military dictator Ziaur Rahman and his wife Khaleda Zia of resorting to the politics of killings and enacting indemnity laws to save the murderers of Bangabandhu and Awami League (AL) leaders and activists.
“After assuming office through the October 1, 2001 farcical national election, Khaleda Zia had started indiscriminate killings of people following the footsteps of her husband Ziaur Rahman,” she said.
Referring to the killing of numerous innocent people, including AL leaders and workers, in the name of the so-called “Operation Clean Heart”, Sheikh Hasina, also the AL president, said that the BNP-Jamaat alliance government initiated the culture of extrajudicial killings in the country through it.
The prime minister said this while taking part in a virtual discussion through a videoconference from her official Ganabhaban residence marking the National Mourning Day and the 45th anniversary of martyrdom of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, reports BSS.
Bangladesh Awami League organised the discussion at its central office at Bangabandhu Avenue here this afternoon.
Pointing to the inhuman torture on Masum, a resident of Khulna and also a maternal cousin of Sheikh Helal, and killing of hundreds of people, the premier said in the name of “Operation Clean Heart”, the law enforcers made blanket arrests of people and inflicted inhuman torture on them.
Sheikh Hasina said Khaleda Zia had given indemnity to wholesale killings after assuming office in 2001 so that trials of those crimes could not be held as her husband did the same thing with giving indemnity to the murderers of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The premier said that the then BNP-Jamaat nexus even ransacked the research office of her party with looting its computers, 300 files, books and cash.
She went on saying: “Khaleda Zia not only allowed indemnity to the people who conducted Operation Clean Heart, but also gave promotion to Bangabandhu killer Pasha after his death and also gave benefits of jobs to his (Pasha) family.
In this context, the prime minister said Khaleda Zia also gave promotion to Khairuzzaman, a murder case accused and questioned, “What does it mean?”
Sheikh Hasina accused again Ziaur Rahman of his involvement in the killing of Bangabandhu, saying that he gave all sorts of support to the murderers.
“Zia even gave lucrative foreign postings to the killers of Bangabandhu,
while Zia’s wife [Khaleda] brought self-confessed killer of Bangabandhu to parliament by rigging votes,” she added.
AL General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, MP, gave introductory speech while the party’s Publicity and Publication Secretary Dr. Abdus Sobhan Golap, MP, moderated the function.
AL Presidium Member Advocate Jahangir Kabir Nanok central committee member AKM Jahangir Hossain, Dhaka North City AL President Sheikh Bazlur Rahman and Dhaka South City AL President Abu Ahammed Mannafi spoke on the occasion.
At the outset of the discussion, a minute’s silence was observed as a mark of profound respect to the memories of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other martyrs of the August 15 carnage.