'Khaleda out to stage another Aug 21 carnage'

Blasting Khaleda Zia for her "ill motive" to hold "Hasina-free" polls in future, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday alleged that the BNP leader was hatching conspiracies to stage another August 21 carnage in the country.

"At Saturday's BNP council, Begum Zia has called for holding 'Hasina-free' polls ... it means she is orchestrating plots. She has no other path … ," the PM said.

Hasina, also the Awami League president, said this while delivering her introductory speech at an AL central working committee meeting at the Gono Bhaban.

She mentioned some remarks of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia before the grisly grenade attack on Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004.

"Begum Zia and other BNP leaders at that time had said Sheikh Hasina would go her father's way, which means she would be killed like her father who was assassinated in 1975, and she won't be allowed to do politics and [she] would have to say goodbye to politics," the PM said.

"Khaleda Zia also said that Sheikh Hasina becoming a prime minister is a far-off possibility, even she would never be made the opposition leader. Through such comments, she wanted to mean there would be no existence of me," Hasina said.

The August 21 incident happened within a few days after the comments of the BNP leader, she said.

The PM alleged that although the BNP-Jamaat harboured ill intent to kill her, it was Almighty Allah who always saved her. "Almighty Allah gave me new life with more responsibilities. So, as long as my task remains unfinished, I believe Allah will protect me," she said.

Stressing the need for continuity of democracy for ensuring socioeconomic development, the AL chief said the country saw massive development in 1996-2001 and then again in 2009-2016.

"Now, many [parties] are following us and I'm happy to know it … even they had to acknowledge that Bangladesh would become a middle-income country. But I would have been more pleased if they had uttered the name of Awami League in this regard," she added.

Hasina alleged that the BNP did not take part in the last general election as they don't want democracy to prevail in the country. "Their birth was through grabbing of power, not through democracy," she said.

At the beginning of yesterday's meeting, the PM recalled the contributions of former president and AL general secretary Zillur Rahman.