An opposition leader has brushed off the government’s threat to arrest BNP’s ‘fugitive’ Senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman as per court orders.
BNP Standing Committee member Rafiqul Islam Mia says such statements do not have a ‘legal basis’.
“Tarique Rahman will return as per his doctors’ advice. He went to London for treatment after being tortured by the illegal 1/11 government,” Mia said on Friday.
A military-backed caretaker government took over on Jan 11, 2007 and held office well beyond its tenure. It imprisoned both the ruling Awami chief Sheikh Hasina and Tarique’s mother BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.
Tarique is widely believed to have run a shadow government when his mother was in office from 2001-6. He left for London in 2008 after getting bail following his arrest in 2007.
Accused in at least a dozen cases, the BNP leader has not returned to the country ever since.
Last Monday, he took part in his first public meeting in five years where he urged the expatriates to create pressure on the government to hold the forthcoming national elections under a non-party caretaker body.
Awami League leader Mohammad Nasim on Thursday alleged Tarique was plotting to topple the government.
Junior Law Minister Qamrul Islam on Friday said the government would do everything in its powers to implement the court’s arrest order for Tarique.
Responding to Islam, BNP leader Mia said, “His statements are politically motivated … I don’t think they have any legal basis.”
He said Tarique was in no condition to return until his treatment was over.
Mia refuted Nasim’s allegations saying Tarique had only urged people to strengthen the opposition’s movement for a non-partisan caretaker government to conduct polls. He wondered where Nasim found traces of conspiracy in Tarique’s statements.
In the press briefing held at the BNP chief’s Gulshan office, he alleged the government was ‘scared’ of Tarique’s popularity and was “running propaganda” against him.
Source: Bd news24
