Kashimpur jail Khaleda's place

The government would arrest BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia if she does not surrender before courts, said Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu yesterday.

"Kashimpur jail is the place for Begum Khaleda Zia, the queen of arson, violence and unrest, not the dialogue table," he told a press briefing at Bangladesh Secretariat.

A Dhaka court on February 25 issued warrants of arrest against Khaleda in the Zia Orphanage Trust and the Zia Charitable Trust graft cases filed by Anti-Corruption Commission.

On March 1, another court issued a warrant allowing police to search Khaleda's Gulshan office for communication devices allegedly being used for carrying out subversive activities across the country.

Inu claimed there was no electoral crisis rather arson, terrorism, sabotage and militancy were Bangladesh's main problems and the government would not surrender to those, rather take all necessary steps to protect people's lives and properties.

Now Khaleda is fuelling anarchy and terrorism to bring an "abnormal" government to power, he claimed, lambasting Khaleda's claim on Friday that the 15th amendment to the constitution was brought about unilaterally.

Khaleda did not join the amendment process, carried out by an all-party committee, comprising representatives of political parties, constitution specialists, professionals and media and cultural personalities and formed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in light of an apex court verdict, he said.

Inu also questioned how Khaleda would deny the many media reports indentifying arsonists caught red handed to be BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami activists.