Govt out to shift blame on others

The government is trying to shift the blame for the murder of an Italian man in Dhaka on others' shoulders, BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said yesterday.

"They accused others in the past of such crimes to shift the blame," he told reporters at the party's Nayapaltan central office. 

News agency BSS reported that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told a news conference in New York on Tuesday, "I saw suspicious activities of a BNP leader after the murder. I think the clue to the murder will be revealed if the BNP leader is interrogated. I'll take measures after returning home."

Wishing anonymity, a number of BNP leaders told The Daily Star that the premier might have pointed to party standing committee member Abdul Moyeen Khan since he had said the government was showing the fear of militancy to the west for its own interest; now it became victim of its own trap.

However, they said it was not the first time such a comment was made, many BNP leaders talked about the issue several times before.

Demanding immediate arrest for Cesare Tavella's killers, Fakhrul accused the government of failing to give security to foreign nationals.

Fakhrul visited the party office for the first time since he was released from jail on bail on July 14 and went to Singapore for treatment.

At another press conference at the same venue, BNP spokesperson Asaduzzaman Ripon said BNP believed there was no militant activity in Bangladesh.

When asked whether he sees any relation between Australian cricket team's fear about militancy and the killing of the Italian, he said BNP did not smell conspiracy in every issue; BNP wanted to believe that the two issues were separate.