PM accuses post-75 rulers of executing Pakistani junta's agenda

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday accused the post-1975 rulers of implementing the agenda of the then Pakistani junta to appease Islamabad.

"They didn't want that the people of Bangladesh will get square meals, houses and pursue study . . . they were executing the agenda of the Pakistani occupation forces in different way," the prime minister told a discussion in the capital.

She said those who grabbed state power after Bangabandhu's 1975 assassination did not want Bangladesh's development and advancement and rather wanted the country to be turned into a failed state and remained as a poor country.

"Their intention was to make Pakistan happy . . . Zia, Ershad and Khaleda Zia, all pursued the same agenda," Sheikh Hasina said.

Bangladesh Awami League (AL) organized the discussion at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre here.

AL advisory council members Amir Hossain Amu and Tofail Ahmed, presidium members Begum Matia Chowdhury and Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, general secretary Obaidul Quader and AL central committee member Nurul Majid Humayun spoke at the discussion.

"Those who carried out the genocide, are ineligible for pardon . . . they must face the trial," the premier said.

She said those who patronised the war criminals should be tried as well and they deserved to be subjected to hatred.

"Those who rewarded the war criminals by handing them over the national flag and making them ministers, committed equal crimes . . . the nation must not forget the fact (and) generations after generations should keep it in mind," Sheikh Hasina said.

The premier said her government paved ways for the trial of the 1971 criminals and subsequently was executing the court verdicts against them.

She recalled that Bangabandhu started the trial of 11,000 identified war criminals by constituting international crimes tribunal but after capturing state power illegally, Zia stopped the activities of the tribunal through a martial law ordinance.

"He (Zia) brought back Golam Azam from Pakistan and released all war criminals . . . he also allowed them to do politics and returned the right to vote," she added.