Shawdesh Desk:

Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Thursday alleged that the prime minister and some other Awami League leaders’ implicating the party chief Khaleda Zia and acting chairman Tarique Rahman in August 21 grenade attack case was a long-term master-plan to mislead people.

The party also found the claims of Awami League leaders politically motivated, yielded from deep-rooted conspiracy.

BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi made the comment at a press conference at BNP central office at Naya Paltan in Dhaka.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said that Khaleda was the then prime minister and she had full responsibility of the attack and AL general secretary Obaidul Quader termed Tarique Rahman as the mastermind of the attack and he should be given maximum punishment.

Rizvi said that the AL leaders were on futile efforts to mislead people with their false propaganda involving Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman with the August 21 grenade attack to make a political gain.

He alleged that AL had been doing ill-motivated politics since the grenade attack. ‘This incident was part of a deep-rooted blueprint…The real offenders could have been got exposed had there been a fair and neutral investigation into the incident.’

Rizvi claimed that Tarique Rahman was implicated in the case in the name of a supplementary charge sheet and convicted through a ‘dictated’ court verdict. ‘It was politically motivated and yield of deep-rooted conspiracy and long-term master-plan.’

He said that they condemn and protest at the August 21 grenade attack as they did then.

He said Tarique’s name was not in the supplementary charge sheet submitted during the army-backed caretaker government and that the name was included when AL came to power and appointed Abdul Kahar Akanda, a retired police officer who sought AL nomination and worked for AL in 2008 national election, as investigation officer of the case.

Rizvi alleged Kahar was reinstated to his job and made investigation officer in the case in 2009 only to endanger BNP leaders, especially to implicate Tarique.

He questioned why AL government would not be responsible for BDR mutiny, murders of free thinker bloggers, priests-worshippers-imams-university teachers and Lalon followers, if BNP government was responsible for August 21 attack.

He also said whether the responsibility of gruesome bomb attacks at Chhayanaut, Udichi programmes, Ahmadiyya mosque, Gopalganj church and other places during AL regime falls on the government.