Khaleda looking for new pretexts to wage movement: PM

Accusing Khaleda Zia of looking for newer pretexts to wage a fresh movement, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday urged the people of the country and her party leaders and workers to get united to stand against any evil power. “The mass people and our party leaders and workers need to be united to stand against any kind of evil power…we’ll build a hunger- and poverty-free ‘Sonar Bangla’ in light with the spirit of the Liberation War,” she said. Hasina, also the President of the ruling Awami League, was addressing a mammoth public rally at the historic Suhrawardy Uddyan in the afternoon, marking the 7th March organised by the ruling party. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in his speech, resembling US President Abraham Lincoln’s historic Gettysburg speech, said, “Since we have learnt to give blood, we’ll give more blood. We’ll definitely liberate the country, Insha Allah… Turn every house into a fort and counter [the enemy] with whatever you have. ” Chaired by Deputy Leader of the House Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, the rally was addressed, among others, by Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, AL Advisory Council member Suranjit Sen Gupta, AL joint general secretaries Mahbub ul Alam Hanif, Dr Dipu Moni, Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal. Hasina alleged that the BNP chairperson is now looking for newer excuses to wage a fresh movement. “Now she (Khaleda) is supplicating those whom she had driven away before. I’ve seen in a picture that she (Khaleda) wearing a red saree is talking to Badu Kaka (Dr Badruddoza Chowdhury). I don’t know whether Badu Kaka went there with a bunch of Rajanigandha.” The Prime Minister said that the character of the BNP-Jamaat has got exposed before people and they would not accept the killers anymore. Referring to the ‘overenthusiasm’ of some foreign diplomats in Dhaka over Bangladesh’s political issues, she said there are some ambassadors who meet the BNP leader every week or after every 15 days and lodge complaints against Awami League, according to a news agency.