Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said local and international quarters were involved in conspiracies to topple her government in the May 5 Hifazat-e Islam rally at Motijheel.
“We were threatened on May 4 that we wouldn’t find a way to escape and the Hifazat was thrust in on the next day,” Hasina said at the Awami League’s working committee meeting at Ganabhaban on Friday.
She condemned forcing young madrasa students into joining the violent demonstrations sponsored by the Chittagong-based organisation.
But she believed all conspiracies will fail when a government enjoyed public support.
At the beginning of the meeting, leaders and activists of the party and its associate organisations greeted Hasina with bouquets on the occasion of her 30th ‘homecoming day’.
She had returned to Bangladesh from exile on this day in 1981, six years after the assassination of her father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“I had to struggle and face death very often [then]. Ittefaq’s Mainul Hosein formed political party with the killers of my father – [Bazlul] Huda and [Shahriar] Rashid,” she told the meeting.
“Ershad provided Faruq with helicopter,” she added.
The Awami League chief also castigated Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia saying she made “the killers lawmakers” later.
She alleged the killers were repeatedly ‘used’ only to end her political career.
Hasina was abroad with her husband when her father was killed, along with his family members, on Aug 15, 1975.
She could not return at that time because the government in power did not allow her.
Hasina returned from India on May 17, 1981.
Later, at the national council of the Awami League in Feb 14-16 in 1981, she was made the party chief.
Source: Bd news24
