AL blasts Khaleda for alleging 'secret deal'
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Awami League (AL) Monday blasted opposition leader and BNP chief Khaleda Zia's comments that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had signed what she said "a secret security deal" during her India visit last week, report agencies.
"Make it public if you are familiar with any such deal," AL general secretary and LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam told a crowded press conference here throwing a "challenge" to the opposition leader a day after she made the allegation in a press briefing.
Syed Ashraf said if it was a secret deal, how she could know it. "Shouldn't there be limit to propagating falsehood and malice?"
"The government of Sheikh Hasina has signed or reached no secret treaty or understanding with India or any other country of the world, it will not do so either . . . the treaties and protocols which were signed, were inked in public and the joint communique clearly pointed them out in line with the international conventions," Syed Ashraf told the press conference at the AL President's Dhanmondi office.
Answering a reporter's question, he said: "We want India, Bhutan, Nepal and China to use Mongla and Chittagong ports. We want to connect with all. We also want to build a deep seaport, which will not be effective unless our existing ports are opened up."
Ashraf said he proposed a road and rail route from Kunming in China to Chittagong via Myanmar during a recent visit to Beijing. "The prime minister will go to China next and an understanding will be reached."
On a possible extradition treaty with India, he said "Marked criminals and Bangabandhu killers are in various jails in India. This treaty needs to bring them back home."
He also added: "Indian terrorists hiding out in Bangladesh have surrendered to Indian forces with our encouragement. We shall further encourage such action so that they return home."
He said it was BNP governments which had signed two subsequent transit deals in 1980 and 2006 while the then state minister for commerce Tanvir Ahmed Siddiqui and finance minister Saifur Rahman inked the treaties respectively.
Ashraf wondered how Khaleda could forget the deal signed by Saifur Rahman in which the two countries had agreed to allow each other to use their riverine, road and railway routes.
Syed Ashraf said the allegations of selling out the country did not suit in the mouth of "a person who did not have the slightest contribution to the 1971 Liberation War and who could forge alliance with war criminals, anti-liberation Jamaat, Shibir, Al-Badr and razakars".
He recalled that Khaleda also had made identical allegations when the landmark 1996 Ganges Water Sharing Treaty was signed with India and the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace deal was reached in 1997 with former Shanti Bahini insurgents to end the more than two-decade long bloodshed in the rugged hills.
"She (Begum Zia) had said that India will take away Bangladesh territory up to Feni (after the peace deal was inked), but she is now elected to parliament from a Feni constituency," Ashraf said questioning Khaleda to which country's parliament she now belonged.
The AL leader also sharply criticised the opposition leader for her allegations of "government failure" in reaching deals with India on the Teesta and other common rivers, cross-border Tipaimukh Dam and asked why she could not settle those during her two previous tenures.
Asfraf also accused Khaleda of resorting to "falsehood" in raising allegations regarding the Ganges water treaty, Teesta issue, transit deals and the Tipaimukh.
Ashraf said Khaleda suppressed facts regarding the 1996 Ganges Water Sharing Treaty as she said the accord lacked any guarantee clause.
"The annexure 1 of the treaty clearly 'guaranteed' that during the lean period in between March 11 and May 10, Bangladesh would get 35,000 cusec waters," he said adding that her comments that the agreement lacked a guarantee was a "blatant lie".
Refuting Begum Zia's remarks about the Teesta waters, Ashraf said talks were underway to reach a deal on the water sharing in the common river while the discussion did not reach a stage to ink an agreement in this regard.
"Make it public if you are familiar with any such deal," AL general secretary and LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam told a crowded press conference here throwing a "challenge" to the opposition leader a day after she made the allegation in a press briefing.
Syed Ashraf said if it was a secret deal, how she could know it. "Shouldn't there be limit to propagating falsehood and malice?"
"The government of Sheikh Hasina has signed or reached no secret treaty or understanding with India or any other country of the world, it will not do so either . . . the treaties and protocols which were signed, were inked in public and the joint communique clearly pointed them out in line with the international conventions," Syed Ashraf told the press conference at the AL President's Dhanmondi office.
Answering a reporter's question, he said: "We want India, Bhutan, Nepal and China to use Mongla and Chittagong ports. We want to connect with all. We also want to build a deep seaport, which will not be effective unless our existing ports are opened up."
Ashraf said he proposed a road and rail route from Kunming in China to Chittagong via Myanmar during a recent visit to Beijing. "The prime minister will go to China next and an understanding will be reached."
On a possible extradition treaty with India, he said "Marked criminals and Bangabandhu killers are in various jails in India. This treaty needs to bring them back home."
He also added: "Indian terrorists hiding out in Bangladesh have surrendered to Indian forces with our encouragement. We shall further encourage such action so that they return home."
He said it was BNP governments which had signed two subsequent transit deals in 1980 and 2006 while the then state minister for commerce Tanvir Ahmed Siddiqui and finance minister Saifur Rahman inked the treaties respectively.
Ashraf wondered how Khaleda could forget the deal signed by Saifur Rahman in which the two countries had agreed to allow each other to use their riverine, road and railway routes.
Syed Ashraf said the allegations of selling out the country did not suit in the mouth of "a person who did not have the slightest contribution to the 1971 Liberation War and who could forge alliance with war criminals, anti-liberation Jamaat, Shibir, Al-Badr and razakars".
He recalled that Khaleda also had made identical allegations when the landmark 1996 Ganges Water Sharing Treaty was signed with India and the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace deal was reached in 1997 with former Shanti Bahini insurgents to end the more than two-decade long bloodshed in the rugged hills.
"She (Begum Zia) had said that India will take away Bangladesh territory up to Feni (after the peace deal was inked), but she is now elected to parliament from a Feni constituency," Ashraf said questioning Khaleda to which country's parliament she now belonged.
The AL leader also sharply criticised the opposition leader for her allegations of "government failure" in reaching deals with India on the Teesta and other common rivers, cross-border Tipaimukh Dam and asked why she could not settle those during her two previous tenures.
Asfraf also accused Khaleda of resorting to "falsehood" in raising allegations regarding the Ganges water treaty, Teesta issue, transit deals and the Tipaimukh.
Ashraf said Khaleda suppressed facts regarding the 1996 Ganges Water Sharing Treaty as she said the accord lacked any guarantee clause.
"The annexure 1 of the treaty clearly 'guaranteed' that during the lean period in between March 11 and May 10, Bangladesh would get 35,000 cusec waters," he said adding that her comments that the agreement lacked a guarantee was a "blatant lie".
Refuting Begum Zia's remarks about the Teesta waters, Ashraf said talks were underway to reach a deal on the water sharing in the common river while the discussion did not reach a stage to ink an agreement in this regard.