Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has alleged that the BNP-Jamaat nexus joined hands with Israel to oust her government, as they are working against the country and Islam.

"The truth can never be suppressed...the BNP-Jamaat clique has joined hands with those who are frequently killing children and women in Palestine," the prime minister told a discussion at St James Court-Taj Hotel in London yesterday.

The UK chapter of Awami League arranged the discussion on the occasion of Homecoming Day of Sheikh Hasina.

Urging people to keep watch on the conspirators, the prime minister said, "These plotters and killers are conspiring against the country and Islam...they don't want Bangladesh and they don't understand anything other than their personal interests."

Sheikh Hasina, also the AL president, said the BNP-Jamaat nexus killed numerous people and committed unbridled corruption and plundering when they were in power. "There has been little change in their character yet."

Referring to the killings and violence unleashed allegedly by the BNP-Jamaat clique to foil the January-5 elections and during the first three months of the last year, she said they had wanted to go to power by keeping their feet on the charred bodies of people.

"The common people, even women, children, college and university students couldn't escape their (BNP-Jamaat) vengeance...how cruel they were! Khaleda Zia is yet to seek pardon to the country's people for her crime," the premier said.

Hasina said they stopped their crimes when they faced public wraths and the BNP leader had to return home by pulling back her tail after being defeated in the movement.

Pointing to the recent secret killings in the country, Hasina alleged that the BNP-Jamaat alliance is now murdering imams, priests of temples and fathers of churches and university teachers selectively.

"They've recently killed USAID staff Xulhaz Mannan who was a cousin of our former foreign minister Dr Dipu Moni and they did it to create panic," she said.

About the trial of war criminals, the prime minister said those who had unleashed atrocities and carried out genocide during the War of Liberation were convicted as war criminals and the court judgements are being executed.

She said those who handed over our bloodstained national flag to war criminals and the defeated forces would be tried as they are equally guilty.

Chaired by UK Chapter AL president Sultan Mahmud Sharif, the discussion meeting was addressed, among others, by its general secretary Sajedur Rahman Khan. All European AL president Anil Das Gupta and former president of UK chapter AL Shamsuddin Khan were present.