Recent killings, militant attacks
PM points finger at BNP, Jamaat
STAFF REPORTER
Staff Reporter
Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina yesterday accused the BNP and Jamaat of being involved in the recent spate of militancy-related killings and attacks in the country.
Asked for the basis of her accusation, the PM said, It should not be forgotten that I am the head of the government. Certainly, I have information about these killings. We have eventually come to know details about these incidents from our sources. But the information from the sources cannot be made public for the sake of investigation.
Hasina said this at a press conference at her official
residence Gono Bhaban in the city.
During the media briefing, the PM read out a keynote paper over her recent visit to Saudi Arabia, Japan and Bulgaria and then answered different questions, especially on the killings and attacks against minorities, free thinkers, bloggers and dissenters.
Those who had killed people by setting them on fire, who do not want to see the countrys progress, who want to destabilise the government by tarnishing the image of Bangladesh, have been carrying out these attacks, she said.
After failing to foil the January 5 elections by carrying out killings, torching of buses and trucks, and destruction of public property, the same people are now engaged in planned killings, she said.
Those who are carrying out the killings and attacks, their roots are the same. Even the fashion of the killings is the same, she added.
Hasina, who is also the Awami League president, criticised those who have accused her government of sitting idle and making politically motivated speech over the killings.
The government is not sitting idle. We have already arrested many perpetrators involved in the killings and they have a link with BNP-Jamaat. None of them will be spared. Each and every perpetrator will have to face the music, she said.
Targeting those who have expressed doubt over the involvement of BNP-Jamaat activists in the recent killings, the PM charged: Such people
actually want to save the real perpetrators behind the killings and terrorist attacks in the country.
At the same time, the PM called upon the people to remain alert and to assist the law enforcement agencies so that the BNP-Jamaat nexus would not able to carry out such killings in a bid to destabilise the country. Hasina also criticised those who spoke in favour of journalist and BNP leader Shafik Rehman during his arrest for alleged involvement in a plot to kill her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy in the US recently.
Some journalists are angry with the arrest of Shafik, although he was involved in an attempt to kill my son, she said, adding that it was a US court that had proved that Shafik was involved in the conspiracy.
Asked about the violence in the just concluded union parishad (UPs) polls, the PM said such incidents of violence and irregularities in the elections were nothing new.
Hasina also claimed that the incidents of violence during the UP polls were due to clashes between supporters of rival candidates. The government and the Election Commission played a strong and impartial role during voting, she added.
