AL does not believe in politics of killing, coup: Quader
Awami League (AL) general secretary Obaidul Quader today said their party does not believe in the politics of killing, coup and enforced disappearance of people, rather it has repeatedly become the victim of those and the politics of conspiracy.
"BNP is doing ill-efforts to gain political benefits in international arena by making false statements about disappearance (of some people) and putting the responsibility on the government. But the story behind the drama of their disappearance is not unknown to the country's people today," he said in a statement.
Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, said the false and fabricated statements the BNP leaders have been making for a long time about forced disappearance are unrealistic and baseless.
With a hope of gaining sympathy from their foreign friends and representatives, the BNP leaders are continuously making falsehood about forced disappearances and killing, he said, adding that they are trying to put its responsibility on the government for the disappearances and killings that occurred as a result of BNP's internal disputes and conflicts.
The AL general secretary said after the disappearance of Chattogram's BNP leader Jamal Uddin, its responsibility was put on the government, but later it was revealed that Jamal Uddin was a victim of forced disappearance by his party men and it was published in media.
Similarly, he said, after the disappearance of BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed, BNP tried to put its responsibility on the government.
"Later, it was also found that he went into self-hiding in India. Even, about Ilias Ali's disappearance, a senior BNP leader in his speech stated that BNP men made Ilias Ali disappeared, which was later published and spread in social media," Quader said.
He said BNP founder and military dictator Ziaur Rahman captured the state power unconstitutionally through killing, coup and conspiracy in this country.
Noting that Zia started the politics of forced disappearance in this country, the road transport minister said Mahfuz Babu, the then general secretary of Dhaka City Chhatra League, was abducted and killed due to his political ideology during the reign of Zia. Even the family of Mahfuz Babu did not find his body, he added.
Quader said Chattogram Jubo League leader Maulavi Syed was brutally killed while hundreds of freedom fighters and officers and soldiers of army and air force were killed due to so-called mutiny aiming to consolidate Zia's illegal power.
"Even the bodies of many of those army officers and soldiers were not found. Their family members still do not know where they were buried. Their family members are still waiting to get the last trace of the people lost in those incidents," he said.
The AL general secretary said the family members of these army officers and soldiers, who were victims of brutal killing, have been demanding posthumous trial of military dictator Ziaur Rahman.
Following the footprints of Ziaur Rahman, BNP chief Begum Khaleda Zia killed many AL leaders and activists in the name of 'Operation Clean Heart' and the Indemnity Act was passed to legitimise the illegal killings, he said.
Quader said about 24,000 AL men were killed during the BNP-Jamaat alliance regime and even as per the directives of Hawa Bhaban, a militant group carried out a grenade attack on an AL rally on 21 August, 2004, under the supervision of the top leadership of BNP, aiming to kill AL's national leaders, including its president Sheikh Hasina.