Khaleda hits back at Hasina

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday alleged that the ruling Awami League and its allies were carrying out targeted killings across the country to cling to power.

"It's unfortunate that a police officer's wife was killed, and the reason behind it is still unclear… Awami League and its allies are involved in the [recent] killings," she said.

"The mystery behind the murders will be solved once they [AL men] are brought to trial."

Khaleda was speaking at an iftar party at the Supreme Court Bar Association auditorium in the capital. Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum, a platform of a pro-BNP lawyers, organised the programme to mark the 35th death anniversary of party founder Ziaur Rahman.

Khaleda made the comments a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami of having a hand in the recent murders.

The BNP chief alleged that ruling party men were plundering public money and torturing people.

"Hasina believes she will be able to stay in power by suppressing people and resorting to killings."  

She further alleged that her party men were being framed by police.

Hasina had all the 15 graft cases against her withdrawn after she came to power, the BNP chief claimed.

Khaleda also alleged that the government was now out to harass her by holding trials in false cases.  

Earlier, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir came down heavily on the PM for her comment that the government had information on BNP-Jamaat's links with the recent secret killings.

The prime minister's comments were provocative, unexpected and unacceptable, he said.

Addressing a press conference at the party's Nayapaltan central office, he said that having miserably failed to unearth the clue to the heinous incidents, the PM was shifting the blame on the opposition.

Fakhrul alleged that it was not possible to carry out such planned killings and vanish into thin air soon after without the signal from the state's top level, that is, the ruling party.

He also said it is as if the government's main objective is to achieve political mileage by putting the blame on the opposition rather than identifying the real killers.

At a press conference at the Gono Bhaban on Wednesday, Sheikh Hasina hinted that BNP-Jamaat men had links with the recent secret killings and that the government had substantial evidence in that regard.