Tag : Hasina

Dhaka: A top leader of Bangladesh’s opposition BNP has threatened Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with “a repeat of 1975”, referring to the massacre of almost her entire family in a military coup then In light of the conditions, nobody in the Awami League government or the country’s intelligence agencies are taking Abdul Kader Bhuiyan’s “repeat 1975” call lightly. Addressing a rally last week in front of the National Press Club here, Abdul Kader Bhuiyan, Secretary of Volunteer Front, a wing of the BNP, and also the former President of its student wing Chhatradal, called for ‘a repeat of 1975’ against PM Sheikh Hasina’s family. “Take up arms and restage another 1975,” Bhuiyan said. However, with no top Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader publicly offering any apology for Bhuiyan’s open and unambiguous call to violence, his statement signifies a tacit endorsement from the party leadership to go for an attempted violent overthrow of the Hasina government. A senior intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IANS that Bhuiyan’s call is “both a trial balloon and an indicator of the future”. The threat by Bhuiyan bears ominous portents of possible violence in the rundown to the June 25 inauguration of the 6.15 km railroad bridge on Padma River, Bangladesh’s biggest infrastructure project so far and one constructed with the country’s own resources. The ruling Awami League has planned a grand opening with a public rally of one million people on June 25. Intelligence officials told IANS they suspect plans for large scale opposition violence ahead of the bridge inauguration to divert public attention and torpedo the plans for a rally, mentioning Bhuiyan’s threat. BNP supremo and former PM Khaleda Zia had prophesied that ...