JMB chief operated under govt protection: Motia

As the JMB activities discredited the government, it arrested Abdur Rahman, she said while addressing a public meeting at Rabulla Bazar ground in Bancharampur upazila.

"His (Abdur Rahman's) arrest is planned, only to divert people's attention from the government's failure to run the country", she said. This has become apparent as the government did not file any treason case against the man who defied the Constitution and laws, tried to destroy the judiciary by killing judges and destabilise the government. Only a murder case and an arms case have been filed against the terrorist whose arrest has been hailed by people at home and abroad, Motia said.

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"But the stage-managed drama will not be able to save the government as people know who are his protectors", the former agriculture minister told the meeting.

Motia came down heavily on the four-party alliance government, blaming it also for crises of fertiliser, power and diesel during the ongoing peak season of IRRI-Boro cultivation. Farmers are buying diesel and fertiliser at prices much higher than during AL rule, she said.

Prices of essentials have gone beyond the reach of the commonman as ruling party men are profiting from trading on those, she claimed.

The meeting, with former Union Parishad chairman and AL leader Gulam Jilani in the chair, was also addressed by central AL leaders Capt (Retd) AB Tajul Islam, former secretaries to the government Col (Retd) Farook Khan MP and Dr Abdur Razzak MP, central BCL President Liakat Shikder, Dhaka city Jubo League President Md Mohiuddin Mohi and Brahmanbaria AL Secretary Lutful-Hye-Sachchu.