Dhaka – BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday said they would face the money laundering case against senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman legally and politically.
“The money laundering case against Tarique Rahman and development centering it is political. We will face it both legally and politically,” he said while talking to journalists at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.The BNP leader said the government wants to send him (Tarique Rahman) into political exile. That’s why the government has taken the “tactics” of sentencing him by filing different cases against him, he added.
He arrived at the airport by a Bangladesh Biman airlines flight at about 11am after a weeklong tour to London.
Fakhrul said they have become frustrated and aggrieved over the High Court verdict that sentenced Tarique Rahman for seven years and filed Tk 20 crore on charge of money laundering.
“The government being revengeful had submitted appeal to cancel the Judge Court verdict of acquittal. Tarique Rahman did not get justice from the higher court,” he alleged.
Replying to a question, he alleged that the government does not want a national unity to face militancy as it is not interested to curb militancy and terrorism.
“That’s why the government is creating issue one afer another to divert the attention of people,” he added.
BNP chairperson’s adviser Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Sabihuddin Ahmed, Nitai Roy Chowdhury and Barrister Rumin Farhana, also back home with the BNP secretary general.
A BNP delegate led by Alamgir went to London on July 16 to attend a seminar in the House of Commons on Bangladesh issue.
Replying a question, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said different issues including country’s political situation, lack of democracy, human rights situation, extrajudicial killings and economic affairs came up in the discussion at the seminar.
A government delegate comprising Prime Minister’s adviser HT Imam, Dr Moshiur Rahman, Post and Telecommunications Minister Tarana Halim, Water Resources Minister Barrister Anisul Islam Mahmud and State Minister Narayan Chandra Chanda also took part in the seminar.
Meanwhile, the BNP yesterday staged demonstration in different parts of the country protesting sentencing Tarique Rahman in a money laundering case.
The city BNP could not hold any demonstration anywhere in Dhaka.
BNP standing committee member Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, who is also joint-convenor of city unit of BNP, said they could not hold their planned meeting scheduled to be held at Institution of Engineers Bangladesh as police did not give them permission.
“We hope that police will give permission soon and we will be bale to hold a protest meeting there tomorrow (Sunday),” he said.
In another development, BNP senior joint secretary general at a press conference at party central office accused the government of trying to foil party’s pre-announced protest programme.
He claimed that members of law enforcers have carried out attacks on homes of the party leaders and activists Friday night and created panic among them.
BNP joint secretary general Khairul Kabir Khokan, Advocate Sanaullah Miah, Abdus Salam Azad, among others, were present at the press conference.
