Fakhrul rules out Tarique, other BNP leaders' involvement

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday robustly ruled out involvement of senior leaders of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, including its senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman, in the August 21 grenade attack.

Terming it a conspiracy of the government to implicate BNP leaders in the grisly grenade in order to put the party in leadership crisis, he called upon all to take to the street with the spirit of protest to protect existence of an independent and democratic state.

"There is no alternative but street movement. Nobody will bring you to power. None will force the government to step down until the mass people are united to do it. So, work to organise people as there is no shortcut," he said.

Mr. Alamgir was addressing as the chief guest a discussion meeting at Dhaka Reporter's Unity (DRU) in the capital marking Shaheed Jihad Day.

Referring to the verdict of August 21 grenade attack case to be delivered today (Wednesday), he said Tarique Rahman's name was not in the charge sheet prepared during the past caretaker government.

"Even, Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina did not mention his name while she was in sub-jail. But things suddenly changed after the party came to power," he said.

The BNP secretary general said after taking statements from 61 witnesses the investigation officer (IO) of the case was replaced by a retired police officer who had earlier sought AL nomination from a constituency in Kishoreganj.

The IO then remanded the main accused Mufti Hannan, who was hanged last year, for 410 days and forced him to give statement against Tarique Rahman and other BNP leaders.

He alleged that the government is hatching conspiracy to root out the philosophy of nationalism by keeping BNP chairperson and senior vice chairman out of politics.

"Fascism is very dangerous when it injects into human brain. It has started happening here. We've to take to street to raise protest together," he said.

Presiding over the meeting, BNP standing committee member Amanullah Aman said AL general secretary Obaidul Quader recently said BNP will be in the leadership crisis after the verdict in the grenade attack case.