Warrant issued for Tarique\\\'s arrest

A Dhaka court on Thursday issued a warrant for the arrest of BNP Senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman in a case filed for calling Bangabandhu a ‘great Razakar’. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate M Yunus Khan issued the arrest warrant after M Mostafizur Rahman Dulal, a member of Dhaka Bar, filed a defamation case against Tarique Rahman for his slanderous remarks on Bangabandhu. Five separate libel suits were filed against Tarique in Dhaka, Comilla, Chittagong and Natore districts in the morning for the derogatory remark. Speaking at a programme in London on Tuesday, Tarique claimed that it would not have taken 9 months to defeat Pakistani occupation forces, if Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had started the war on March 7, 1971, with the help of the Bangalee army officers. According to him, the ‘small number’ of Pakistani soldiers then present in Bangladesh could have been easily defeated and the death toll and economic damage ‘could have been much less’. ‘After knowing all this, who can we solely blame? Sheikh Mujib. And we have called him a ‘Razakar’ after analysing the facts. We have labelled him as Pakbandhu (friend of Pakistan) on the basis of actual incidents,’ said Tarique, also the elder son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, according to a news agency.