Information Minister and Awami League Joint General Secretary Dr. Hashan Mahmud said, if Bangladesh has to reach the dream destination of Bangabandhu and freedom fighters by continuing today’s progress as the Bangladesh of the future, then the politics of anti-nationalism and hatred must be stopped forever.
He said, “Those who did not want the country exist, who fought for the flag with a crescent and a star against the flag of this country by being the friends of Pakistanis, sheltering them, shadowing them under the blanket; if we do not stop doing politics with them, we can’t reach the destination we dream of.”
The minister opined so while addressing as the chief guest at a meeting titled ‘Discussion on August 15: Bangabandhu and Tomorrow’s Bangladesh’ organized by the National Press Club at the Club Auditorium on Sunday afternoon.
Hasan said, ‘The liberation war was fought in this country under the leadership of Awami League. One of the best children of the nation, the freedom fighters fought with their lives. Sector commanders were appointed and paid salaries under the government formed during the war of liberation. Ziaur Rahman also took a salary of 400 taka.
The historical fact is that Ziaur Rahman was involved in the assassination of Bangabandhu and his participation in the liberation war was as an accomplice of the Pakistanis, the course of events proves it.
The Broadcasting Minister said, ‘Zia and her family are the biggest beneficiaries of the tragic killings on August 15, 1975. The proof that Ziaur Rahman is intimately connected with the assassination of Bangabandhu is that after the assassination of Bangabandhu, Khandaker Mushtaq appointed Ziaur Rahman as the army chief because he was his confidant.
Zia allowed and rehabilitated all of Bangabandhu’s killers to leave the country with jobs in embassies abroad, and to legalize the Indemnity Ordinance issued to block the prosecution of Bangabandhu’s murders, on the first day of the first session after the 1979 parliamentary elections, the ruling party moved the bill into law.’
The information minister said, “All the anti-liberation war people joined the BNP. Begum Khaleda Zia used to celebrate a fake birthday on August 15 to mock the assassination of Bangabandhu. And with due respect to Mirza Fakhrul, I want to say that his father was also an anti-liberation war man, who was in hiding for a few days after independence.”
National Press Club president Farida Yasmin presided over the event while the former minister A. B. Tajul Islam was present as special guest. Prime Minister’s former Information Advisor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Journalists’ Welfare Trust Managing Director Subhash Chand Badal, National Press Club General Secretary Shyamal Dutta, Senior Journalist Abdul Jalil Bhuiya, Azizul Islam Bhuiya and others addressed the meeting.