PM asks Khaleda to check Tarique:Daily Sun

Sheikh Hasina Terming BNP Senior Vice-chairman Tarique Rahman ‘uneducated’ and ‘beast’, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday asked her political arch-rival Khaleda Zia to control her tongue-lashing son only to avert a fitting reply. “He [Tarique] doesn’t have [formal] education. He has been talking gibberish like a beast. The public knows how to punish the beast. Ask your son to hold his tong
ue or he would get a fitting reply.” “The way he has been making irresponsible statements won’t be tolerated,” Hasina said while addressing a programme organised by the ruling party at Agriculture Institution Auditorium in the capital, marking 44th Victory Day. She issued the strongly worded warning as Tarique at a programme in London on Tuesday termed Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the country to achieve its long-cherished independence, ‘Razakar.’ Tarique made a plethora of such controversial statements in the past. Hinting at Khaleda, the PM said, “You ask your recalcitrant son to hold his peace or the countrymen as well as the people around him won’t tolerate it.” Hasina, also president of the ruling Awami League, said her government would proceed with the August 21 grenade attack case like the trial of war criminals. Tarique is one of the prime accused in the case as miscreants hurled grenades at a rally of the then opposition Awami League to kill Hasina. Hasina, however, narrowly escaped the attack but some 24 leaders, including Ivy Rahman, were killed and scores of others critically injured. “He [Tarique] has been involved in many killings. The trial of the August 21 case must be held on home soil,” the premier reiterated. Recalling a slogan [They are killing people, let’s kill the beasts] on Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, she said, “Yahya Khan was a beast. Tarique’s statement resembles Yahya’s.” Pointing finger at Khaleda, Hasina wondered, “What she taught her sons by spending the money from the exchequer?” “Instead of growing up them as human beings, she made them thieves as courts in America and Singapore also delivered verdicts on the same,” the PM said. She accused Tarique of distorting history while he was staying in London. “I feel hatred to utter his name. He has been distorting history willingly.” The man has been doing so following in his parents’ footsteps, Hasina uttered. The premier said he would speak like a human being if he would have any education. “The countrymen know how to punish the beast.” Hasina said Tarique has been making such derogatory remarks as BNP has signally failed to save the identified war criminals. “They got hurt as Nizami is awarded punishment… every verdict will be executed.” The trial of all killings, including the August 21 grenade attack case, must be held, she went on. “Khaleda and Tarique are the killers of Ivy Rahman. They don’t know anything except killings. They don’t believe in the country’s independence. They are the agents of the defeated forces.” Hasina also accused Khaleda of embezzling money from an orphanage trust. “As she committed the crime, she didn’t appear in court. She knows that she will be proved guilty in the court.” Mentioning BNP’s founder Ziaur Rahman’s name, she said they claim Zia to the proclaimer of the independence. “If he [Zia] was the proclaimer of independence, how did he stop the trial of war criminals? How did he make Shah Abdul Aziz and Abdul Alim ministers? How did he rehabilitate the killers of Bangabandhu?” she queried. The premier said Zia paved the way for anti-liberation elements to do politics through martial law ordinances. Distortion of history started after the killing of Bangabandhu, she said, adding: “Mustaque assumed office after the assassination of Bangabandhu. Ziaur Rahman was linked with the killing.” The premier also compared the BNP regimes with the regime of Pakistan. “The way the Pakistanis killed people, raped women and loot public property, BNP carried out same activities after assuming office.” Listing her government’s ongoing development activities, the premier vowed to turn the country a golden Bangla as dreamt by Bangabandhu. “Bangladesh has been marching forward. Nobody can be able to hinder progress. The country will turn into a middle-income one by 2021 and a developed one by 2041,” she hoped. Hasina criticised BNP for misleading statements on the advisers of the government. “I want to make it clear that advisers are assisting the government without salary. What does honourary mean? They don’t understand anything without money.” AL senior leaders, including Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta, Matia Chowdhury and Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, also spoke at the event with Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury in the chair.