Awami League (AL) advisory council member and commerce minister Tofail Ahmed yesterday strongly criticised BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia for calling for national unity while maintaining ties with the platform for war criminals, the Jamaat-e-Islami.
“BNP chief Khaleda Zia, in her call for greater unity to curb militancy, is simply kidding the nation, as her party is still maintaining ties with Jamaat. In fact, she inducted relatives of Jamaat members into her party’s newly formed committee, which is very unfortunate,” he said.  
The senior AL leader was speaking as the chief guest at an exhibition of rare photographs and documentaries on Bangabandhu, organised by Suchinta Foundation at the Teacher Student Centre (TSC) auditorium of Dhaka University.
The minister said national unity cannot be forged by keeping the offspring of the war criminals in the committee (of the BNP). National unity against militancy has already been established in the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, he added.
He added that the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed when he restored normalcy to the country after independence. A conspiracy is being hatched to introduce militancy into the country to hinder Bangladesh's progress and development under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
He said that the very people who had torched public and private properties to thwart the national polls in 2014 and killed innocent people with petrol bombs in 2015, are now instigating militancy from behind the curtain.
Suchinta Foundation trustee Kantara Khan chaired the function, which was also addressed, among others, by former permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations Dr AK Abdul Momen, former Dhaka University Teachers’ Association president Prof. Khondokar Bazlul Haq, and Chhatra League president Saifur Rahman Sohag.
Meanwhile, another advisory council member of AL, Amir Hossain Amu, said that BNP-Jamaat men are resorting to killings across the country disguised as militants. He was addressing a seminar about Bangabandhu at Jahangirnagar University in Savar yesterday.
The Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was murdered with the aim to remove Awami League from the country. The very groups that were involved in the murder of Bangabandhu are resorting to acts of terrorism and militancy in the country, he claimed. Nevertheless, no one can stop the progress of the country led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, he added.