Khaleda behind mutiny by BDR, says Hasina

By Mizan Rahman/Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday directly accused Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia of involvement in the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutiny and killing of 57 army officials on February 25-26, 2009.

“Surely, she (Khaleda) had a connection, she was responsible,” she said while speaking at a meeting with grassroots leaders of Awami League at her official residence Ganobhaban in Dhaka.

Awami League leaders from different municipalities and sub-districts of Sylhet, Khulna, Mymensing, Patuakhali, Noakhali and Narayanganj districts attended the meeting, organised to select the party candidates for the next general election.

Hasina, also the Awami League president, was also critical of the lawyers from the  BNP and Jamaat who are defending the accused in the BDR mutiny trial.

She alleged that just an hour before the mutiny, the opposition leader left her cantonment residence without any protocol for an unknown destination.

“She is the leader of the opposition and was entitled to avail official security. But, on that day, she left her home without any protocol and used a car with blackened glass. Nobody knew where she went,” Hasina said.

Khaleda Zia usually “gets up from bed not before 12 noon. But on that particular day, she got up from bed much earlier and left her cantonment house between 7:30am and 8am. She was untraced for couple of days… she also did not return to her cantonment house for one and a half month”.

The Prime Minister said the “mystery of Khaleda Zia vanishing” from her residence is yet to be resolved and the opposition leader must answer these questions before the nation.

Awami League leaders Satish Chandra Roy, Suranjit Sengupta, Kazi Jafarullah, Abdul Latif Siddiqui, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Dr Abdur Razzaque and Mahbubul Alam Hanif were present on the dais.