BNP's Mosharraf rebuts reports about his understanding with ruling AL

Senior BNP leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain yesterday said he did not negotiate his bail with the government to get out of jail.

Criticising media reports that he reached an understanding with the ruling Awami League to split BNP as a condition for securing bail, he asked, "Why did I have to be in jail for 22 months if I had negotiated with the government?"

The BNP standing committee member was addressing a BNP discussion at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, marking the 80th birth anniversary of former president Ziaur Rahman.

Mosharraf came out of jail on bail on January 13.

On January 10, the Supreme Court upheld his bail in a money laundering case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission in 2014 on the charge of amassing over Tk 9.53 crore between 2001 and 2006 and depositing the amount into a bank account in the UK.

Headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, the four-member bench ordered the lower court concerned to finish the trial proceeding of the case in three months.

Mosharraf said, "The 1/11 government had tried to split and eliminate BNP in many ways, but it couldn't. The conspiracy is still going on through propaganda and repression."

"As part of the plot, a national daily reported on Sunday that I am coordinating a task of breaking BNP by organising all from the party's standing committee to district unit leaders across the country."

He said, "Have I forgotten the fate of late Mannan Bhuiyan who wanted to split BNP after being its secretary general for 11 years? Is it believable that I will take the initiative to split BNP after knowing all these facts?"

He asked party workers not to get confused by propaganda, saying no one would be able to eliminate BNP and split it. "I urge all leaders and activists to take a vow today to stay united to restore democracy and people's rights."

Likening BNP with a Phoenix, Mosharraf said BNP would never be destroyed.

BNP acting secretary general Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said various efforts including propaganda were going on to confuse the party workers and weaken and annihilate nationalist forces.