Hasina rules out dialogue, wants Khaleda surrenders

Ruling out the possibility of sitting for a dialogue with the BNP chairperson to end the ongoing “political stalemate”, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday advised Begum Khaleda Zia to surrender to the court by showing respect to the law of the land.

The Prime Minister added: “Who will sit for a dialogue with the BNP chairperson, who is a militant leader and who killed children and pregnant women by pouring petrol and hurling cocktails and who does not treat the people as human beings?.”
Instead of that I would like to advise Begum Zia to surrender to the court by showing respect to the law of the court as summon has been issued against her…it would be better for her and that is her place. If she does not do so, the government would be compelled to execute the court order,” she said.
The Prime Minister said this while addressing a rally of the professionals organised by Peshajibi Samannaya Parishad in the auditorium of the Krishibid Institution, Bangladesh at Farmgate in the capital. The rally was organised in protest against arson and petrol bomb attacks, militancy and terrorism as well as killing of people and destruction of development- economy- education by the BNP-Jamaat.
With President of Peshajibi Samannaya Parishad Justice AFM Mezbahuddin in the chair, the rally was also addressed by PM’s Media Advisor journalist Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique, Bangladesh Medical Association President Professor Dr Mahmud Hasan, Krishibid Institution, Bangladesh President AFM Bahauddin Nasim, MP among others.
Talking about the BNP chairperson’s ongoing anti-government movement, the Prime Minister said Begum Zia has failed in the movement as she could not involve the general people in it. “Any sensible person does not want burning, vandalism, corruption and militancy,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said the BNP leader is now taking revenge on the people as she made a mistake by not participating in the January 5 polls. “How far she will play ducks and drakes with the fate of the people? But as long as I remain alive, I won’t allow her further to play ducks and drakes with the lot of the people,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said whatever Khaleda Zia makes announcement by sitting in her office, it won’t yield any results as the eyes of the people have opened and they know everything. “The BNP leader did not get response to those whom she was looking at. Either the ‘North’ or ‘West’… any country or quarter did not respond. Because none could support her militancy and burning people to death,” she said.
Referring to the success of the anti-government movement of the Awami League, Sheikh Hasina said that movement succeeded as her party could involve the people in it. “We made the people together and created a mass awakening. Begum Zia was compelled to resign as she stole the people’s vote,” she said.
About the “disappearance” of BNP Joint Secretary General Salauddin Ahmed, the Prime Minister said Khaleda Zia will have to give reply that where she has hidden him.
“Khaleda Zia must tell where she has hidden Salauddin Ahmed and she might have smuggled him through the ‘bags of dirt’ which the city corporation staff collected recently from Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office,” she said.
She said: “We are also trying to find out Salauddin Ahmed. If we trace him out, he must be arrested.”
Referring to Khaleda Zia’s audacity when the Prime Minister went to her (Begum Zia) Gulshan office to extend sympathy to the bereaved mother, Sheikh Hasina said she could have taken action against the BNP chairperson ‘for her bad behavior’ as the head of the government. – BSS