No need to have ties with Pakistan

Lambasting Pakistan for its "conspiracy" against Bangladesh, Awami League lawmaker Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim demanded in parliament yesterday that the government sever diplomatic ties with the neighbouring country.

"Pakistani agents are hatching conspiracy so that Bangladesh cannot make progress. There is no reason to keep any relation with Pakistan," Selim told parliament, speaking on a thanksgiving motion for the president's speech.

The AL presidium member said, "Pakistan is our born enemy. I will call upon the foreign minister to consider the issue of ending diplomatic relations with Pakistan."

Amid applaud from both treasury and opposition bench MPs, Selim said some Pakistani diplomats stationed in Dhaka were engaged in a conspiracy, and their agents were instigating militant outfits to destabilise the country.

Selim also claimed that Pakistani agents were behind the 2009 BDR carnage.

"In 1971, the Pakistani occupation army had carried out genocide in Bangladesh. They killed Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman," Selim added.

Strongly criticising BNP chief Khaleda Zia, he said although she lived in Bangladesh, she was a Pakistani at heart.

As a "collaborator" of Pakistan, Khaleda questioned the number of the 1971 Liberation War martyrs like Pakistan did.