Claiming that he has been charged with sedition for revealing historical facts, BNP senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman has said a sedition case should be filed against Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for being the president of Bangladesh after returning home with a Pakistani passport.Rahman for being the president of Bangladesh after returning home with a Pakistani passport.
“Perhaps, I’ve been charged with sedition charges in the country for coming up with some historical facts. A sedition case should be lodged against Sheikh Mujib because, he had taken oath as president after returning to independent Bangladesh as a Pakistani citizen with a Pakistani passport on January 10, 1972,” he said.
Tarique, also the eldest son of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, made the remarks while addressing a discussion in East London on Wednesday arranged by the UK chapter of BNP, marking the ‘National Revolution and Solidarity Day’.
The BNP leader said the sedition case against Bangabandhu should be filed to have the legal answer to the question as to how a Pakistani citizen was sworn in as president of independent Bangladesh.
On October 18, advocate Moshiur Rahman Malek, president of Bangabandhu Foundation, filed the sedition case against Tarique for calling Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman “Pakbandhu (Friend of Pakistan)”.
Tarique alleged that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after ‘illegally grabbing power’ apparently had played an “anti-liberation role by indiscriminately killing freedom fighters and forgiving” the identified war criminals ignoring public opinion.
Tarique at the beginning of his speech alleged that the new generation is being taught false, distorted and biased history. “They should have known the real and correct history.”
In his long address, the BNP senior vice chairman discussed various issues relating to the Liberation War, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s role in the Liberation War, National Revolution and Solidarity on November 7 and the perspective in which his father Ziaur Rahman had assumed power.
He also tried to depict how much Ziaur Rahman was popular and dispassionate statesman and renewed his claim that his father was not only the first proclaimer of independence but also the first elected president of the liberated Bangladesh.
Claiming further that Ziaur Rahman had no role in the murder of Bangabandhu, Tarique blamed Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) for it, and questioned the then role of current JSD chief and Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu.
Rejecting Awami League leader Syed Ashraful Islam’s allegation that Zia had link with the jail killing incident, the BNP leader said his father was under house arrest at his cantonment residence on November 2, 1975, a day before the jail killing day.
He also claimed that it is not Zia but Khandakar Mushtaq Ahmed had promulgated the ‘Indemnity Ordinance on September 26, 1975.
Branding Inu as a militant, Tarique said, “The Inu Bahini (force) had crafted the ground for the murder of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. They’d later tried to make their own political gains by using the popularity of Ziaur Rahman. As they’d had failed to do so, they’re now trying to tarnish Ziaur Rahman’s image by resorting to lies and distorting history.”
He also came down heavily on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina saying ‘wrong-headed’ Hasina illegally grabbed power with ‘so-called MPs’ who were not elected with people’s votes.
Alleging that Sheikh Mujib had no trust in people, Tarique said Sheikh Hasina also has no confidence in people like her father as she formed the government and parliament without people’s mandate.
Tarique has been staying in London since 2008.
He was arrested on March 7, 2007 during the then army-backed interim regime and freed from jail on bail on September 3, 2008.
He left for London for treatment eight days later. He is an accused in a number of cases, including the August 21 grenade attack ones.
Source: UNB