Militancy emerged during AL rule

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday alleged that the country saw the rise of militancy during the Awami League rule.

It was the BNP that had arrested all militants and tried them after it came back to power in 2001, she claimed.

"Why does Hasina talk about militancy? Does she do it to frighten foreigners? She is trying to convince the international community that militancy will rise in the country if the BNP returns to power," the BNP chief said at a meeting organised by the party's UK chapter at a hotel in London.

This was her first meeting with party men and non-resident Bangladeshis in London since she went to the UK on September 15.

"They [the AL] did not arrest any militants. Upon assuming office, we arrested all militants and started trying them," she claimed.

Media reports, however, suggest that supremo of militant outfit JMB Abdur Rahman and his deputy Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai boosted their "Jihadi" movement during the tenure of the BNP-led government between 2001 and 2006.

The leaders of the BNP-Jamaat-led alliance refuted media reports that militancy existed in the country.

However, coming under pressure at home and abroad, a number of militant leaders, including Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai, were arrested in 2005.

The duo and several other militant leaders were tried and later hanged in 2007 during the tenure of a caretaker government.

In her speech yesterday, Khaleda termed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina "Lady Hitler", and alleged that Hasina wants to establish "monarchy" in the country, wiping out democracy and the rule of law.

She also accused the Hasina-led administration of trying to destroy the BNP to cling to power. "It won't be possible to split the BNP".

The BNP chief urged people to forge "national unity" to get rid of "the evil force and restore democracy".

While the meeting was going on, leaders and activists of the AL's UK chapter staged demonstrations in front of the hotel carrying banners and placards with anti-Khaleda slogans, according to a Bangladeshi journalist now in London. 

Khaleda said untoward incidents are taking place in the country for the "absence of democracy".

"But the BNP is blamed whenever anything bad happens in the country," she said.

Khaleda said she would return home soon to revamp the party and get it ready for waging a fresh anti-government movement.