‘Call off blockade if you have sense’

Sheikh Hasina_1

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday urged the BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia to call off blockade programme, saying that Khaleda’s motive to overthrow the government would not come true.

“Khaleda Zia won’t go back home and stop the blockade before killing me. But, I hope if she has any sense, she would withdraw her ceaseless programme as she could not succeed in overthrowing the government by imposing hartal and blockade for 81 days,” Hasina said.

She said this attending a discussion to observe the Independence and National Day on Friday in the capital.

Sheikh Hasina alleged that Khaleda Zia is patronising the anti-liberation forces to frustrate the independence.

Criticising Khaleda Zia for not going to Shaheed Minar and National Memorial this year, Sheikh Hasina said Khaleda Zia has proved it once again that she is a cohort of the defeated forces of 1971.

Sheikh Hasina also turned down the claim that Ziaur Rahman, the founder of the BNP, introduced the “multi-party” democracy in Bangladesh.

She alleged that Ziaur Rahman introduced the ‘curfew democracy’ in the country instead during his tenure.

“People had no basic rights from 1975 to 1991 until restoration of democracy. They got back their rights when Awami League took office in 1996…,” Hasina claimed.

Sheikh Hasina ruled out the claim of BNP that the government confined Khaleda Zia in her house.

“Begum Zia kept herself under lock and key and vowed to continue it until she can kill me,” the premier alleged.

Source: Prothom Alo