Blame game starts again

The government should accept responsibility and be held accountable for the murders starting from Italian national Cesare Tavella's on September 28, 2015 to USAID local staff Xulhaz Mannan, his friend Mahbub Tonoy and jail guard Rustam Ali's on Monday, said BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday.

It must happen irrespective of the amount of confusion the government's chief creates through loud speeches, she said in a statement sent to the media, accusing the government of trying to conceal the real facts by shifting the blame on "the opposition".

There is no way other than violent bloodshed for the "voter-less" government to exist as it has no public support, she added.

People's lives, goods, peace, happiness and voting and democratic rights are now in a "hearse", the country's overall situation is unprecedentedly dangerous and people are passing days in panic, she warned. 

She also demanded immediate arrest and exemplary punishment of the killers through trials.

At a meeting with Awami League's (AL) front and like-minded organisations at her Dhanmondi office on Monday night, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami of carrying out the killings.

"Everybody knows who are behind such killings…the BNP-Jamaat nexus is engaged in such secret and heinous murders to destabilise the country," she said.

Talking to journalists afterwards, AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam claimed that the recurring killings were a bid to put the government in difficulties.

"The prime minister in her speech said the killings are taking place in a planned manner only to invite trouble for the government...especially the killings of bloggers and cultural activists. The government will not take it easily. We will take action following legal process. No one will be spared," he said.

Meanwhile at a press conference at BNP's Naya Paltan central office, Senior Joint Secretary Rizvi Ahmed questioned how the party was blamed when investigations were yet to begin.

"Efforts were also taken in the past to implicate BNP with murders across the country. This means the government is trying to divert people's attention from their utter failures," he said.