Tarique will be brought back, put on trial

Awami League President Sheikh Hasina yesterday said BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman will be brought back from London and put on trial if her party wins the next national polls.

“If we can come [to power] after winning the next election, we will not allow him to give orders from London to harm and kill people. If necessary, he would be brought home and punished,” she said.

The AL chief was addressing a campaign rally at the Government Sheikh Mujibur Rahman College ground in Gopalganj’s Tungipara upazila.

Hasina said conspiracies are being hatched at home and abroad so elections cannot be held in Bangladesh as the conspirators want to bring the “third force” to power.

“What can the third force do? They can’t do any development of the country. You saw what they did in 2007,” she said.

Noting that Israel carries out bomb attacks on hospitals in Palestine, the prime minister alleged that Tarique is doing exactly the same thing by giving orders from London to launch attacks on ambulances, journalists and police in Bangladesh.

She said such criminal activities will not be allowed.

The premier asked the people to give a befitting reply to the conspiratorsby casting votes on January 7 in a peaceful manner.

“I want this election to be held very peacefully. Through the January 7 polls, we will give a befitting reply to the conspirators so none can play ducks and drakes with the fate of the people of Bangladesh anymore.”

Hasina, the AL candidate from Gopalganj-3 (Tungipara-Kotalipara), sought votes for “boat”, the party’s electoral symbol.

“You go to the polling stations and cast votes in the morning to show the world that we know how to hold the election in a free and fair manner. We can do it.”

Hasina said the BNP leaders who are “killing people by carrying out arson attacks following Tarique’s orders” will have to take the responsibility of murdering people.

‘FOREIGN MEDDLING IN POLLS WON’T BE TOLERATED’

Addressing another campaign rally in Kotalipara, the AL president said Bangladesh will not accept foreign meddling in the January 7 polls.

She warned that the conspirators would face serious consequences.

Bangabandhu’s younger daughter Sheikh Rehana accompanied her sister to the rally in Kotalipara from the one in Tungipara.

Without naming any country that opposed the Bangladesh’s independence, Hasina said those powers failed during the Liberation War in 1971.

“We will show them that we can achieve victory in terms of economic progress,” she said.

The premier urged the first-time voters not to miss the opportunity to cast votes for her party for the sake of the progress of Bangladesh.

AL advisory council member Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim MP, Sheikh Helal Uddin MP, Sheikh Tonmoy MP, and AL Joint General Secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim, among others, were present.

Later in the day, Hasina and Rehana joined another election rally at Kalkini Syed Abul Hossain University College ground in Madaripur’s Kalkini upazila.

Speaking at the rally, the AL chief asked the people to cast votes early in the morning of January 7 as a big turnout of voters is important this time.

She remembered that Syed Abul Hossain, late local lawmaker, had been the communications minister when a false corruption allegation in the Padma Bridge project was brought against the government.

“We have constructed the Padma Bridge with our own finances,” she said, praying for the salvation of the departed soul of Abul Hossain.

Hasina introduced the AL candidates — Noor-E-Alam Chowdhury for Madaripur-1, Shajahan Khan for Madaripur-2 and Abdus Sobhan Golap for Madaripur-3 — to her audience and sought votes for them.