The government has to examine if it would be reasonable to bring
sedition charges against Tarique Rahman, says the junior home
minister.
State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said on Saturday his
government would have to closely examine whether it would be proper to
bring such charges against the London-based BNP leader.Tarique’s recent diatribes against Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
— he was an illegal Prime Minister — follows his claims that his
father Ziaur Rahman was the first president of Bangladesh.
These have upset Awami League leaders and some of them like Suranjit
Sengupta have insisted that Tarique should be tried for sedition.
But Kamal struck a cautious note while speaking to journalists at the
launch of Ahsania Mission’s drug rehabilitation centre for women in
Mohammadpur in the city.
” We should not do anything questionable or that could cause
protests,” Kamal said , indicating the government should refrain from
being provoked by Tarique.
But Kamal pointed out that Tarique had admitted to his crimes and was
on parole, but he was violating it by not returning to the country.
He claimed Awami League government had identified the people behind
the Ramna Batamul attacks and arranged for their trial, but the Zia
government delayed that .
The case against the perpetrators behind the bomb blast at Ramna
Batamul during Bangla New Year celebration on April 14, 2001 that
killed ten is now before the Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions
Judge’s Court of Dhaka.
Witnesses have finished deposing in that court by October last year.
After a waste of seven years, investigators have now found Harkat-ul-
Jihad-al-Islami’s (HuJI) was behind that explosion.
“The case did not progress when people who sponsored that attack came
to power,” Kamal alleged.
He said his government would try to speed up the case.
“If some of the accused are abroad, they will also be brought back,”
he said, but did not specify anyone by name.
Speaking at the event, the minister said no drugs apart from cannabis
were produced in the country.
Drugs enter the country through borders of India and Myanmar and
Bangladesh had tried to influence the neighbours to crack on drug
processing factories on its borders, Kamal said.
The Ahsania Mission rehabilitation centre was opened as the first-ever
drug rehabilitation centre for women in the country.-bdnews24.com
