By Mizan Rahman

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s close aide and Health Minister Mohamed Nasim yesterday ruled out a compromise with the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party “not even in the next 100 years.”

“How can Sheikh Hasina reach a consensus with those who killed her parents and brothers?” Nasim asked.

The minister, who is also the presidium member of the ruling Awami League, was speaking at an event organised by Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) in Dhaka, marking the National Mourning Day.

Criticising BNP leaders for their remarks on killings and forced disappearances, Nasim said: “See your faces in the mirror. You (BNP) didn’t hold the trial of any killing during your rule, but Sheikh Hasina completed all the trials and in doing so she didn’t compromise with her party leaders and activists.”

Awami League joint general secretary Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif said: “We can’t reject BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir’s remarks that it is not the BNP, but the country that is in crisis. This only indicates they’re conspiring to create instability in the country with the help of Westerners.”

Meanwhile, eldest son of BNP chief Khaleda Zia, Tarique Rahman who is in London was quoted as saying yesterday despite attempts to implicate his father Ziaur Rahman in the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, his role in the Liberation War cannot be negated.

He was addressing an event to mark the party’s 36th founding anniversary organised in East London by BNP’s UK unit.

Tarique reiterated that it was his father, not Mujib, who announced Bangladesh’s independence in 1971.

Hasina recently said the BNP founder would have been put on trial if he was alive for his role in the assassination of her father.

She also accused Ziaur Rahman of steering Bangladesh away from the original goals of the Liberation War.

Zia stopped the judgment of war criminals after grabbing power, she said.

Over 500 party activists attended the gathering presided over by BNP’s UK chapter chief Shaesta Chowdhury Kuddus and conducted by general secretary Koysar Ahmed.

A documentary by ‘Policy Forum’ highlighting the contributions of Ziaur Rahman, Khaleda Zia and Tarique in taking the BNP forward was shown at the beginning of the function.

Tarique last week stirred fresh controversy by calling founding father Bangabandhu’s family a “curse on the nation”.

He again claimed his father was the first ‘legitimate’ president of Bangladesh.

“He was the first to declare war against Pakistan. He also announced independence. The political leadership then failed to do this but he did.”

Those who find it difficult to deny Zia’s war-time role are trying to implicate him in Sheikh Mujib’s killing, Tarique alleged.

“Those who were involved in his killing are in Sheikh Hasina’s cabinet. They have been lying to her to save themselves.”

On August 25, Tarique had claimed present ministers Hasanul Haq Inu and Rashed Khan Memon were present when Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmed was being sworn in as president after Mujib’s killing.

The BNP leader, accused in a slew of cases including the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally, has been living in London since 2008 with his family citing medical needs.

He resurfaced in May last year at a BNP function in London and since then has been participating in party events.

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