Minister asks to remove Zia’s grave from parliament area

Liberation war affairs minister AKM Mozammel Haque on Saturday asked the authorities concerned to remove Ziaur Rahman's grave from the parliament premises.

"Some structures, including Zia's grave, were constructed on the Jatiya Sangsad premises going beyond the original design. There are also some other graves here. I request to remove these," he said.

The minister made the request participating in the general discussion on the proposed national budget for 2019-20 fiscal.

Similar demands were raised in the 9th and 10th parliament by several ministers and MPs to restore the parliament to its original design by Louis I Kahn. Bangladesh also collected the original design in 2016, but no initiative to remove these structures is visible yet.

Minister Mozammel said Bangabandhu formed Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (BAKSAL) to establish democracy of the exploited people.

He said Zia and his subservient turned the economic programme -BAKSAL - into an expletive through the killing father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

"In fact, no political party was stopped by BAKSAL. Rather the national party was formed by suspending activities of political parties for the time being. The activities of Awami League were also suspended," he said.

Describing the government's various activities on providing facilities to freedom fighters, the minister said his ministry has taken an initiative to keep experience of every freedom fighter in record.

The experience of every freedom fighter will be recorded for 10-20 minutes. "These records will be preserved permanently," he added.