Grenade Attack
Jalil says can prove govt's hand, dares BNP to refute
Staff Correspondent
Awami League General Secretary Abdul Jalil yesterday said he can prove the coalition government's involvement in the August 21 grenade attack on AL rally and challenged the ruling BNP leaders to contest and disprove him in public debate if they dare."The targets of all the bomb blasts in the recent years were AL leaders, progressive and pro-liberation forces and Bangalee culture, and it's not hard to understand who are their enemies," Jalil said while speaking as the chief guest at a meeting to mourn the dead in the grisly attack. At the meeting jointly organised by Bangabandhu Sanskritik Jote and Bangladesh Chalachchitra League at the Jatiya Press Club, the AL general secretary said, "Those who opposed the Liberation War and assassinated Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman are the ones behind the attack. They wanted to massacre the AL leadership or, in other words, destroy the democracy and sovereignty of the country and erase it from the map." He lambasted the government for not carrying out to completion any of the probes into the arms hauls in Chittagong and Bogra and the series of bomb blasts, and thus exposing the criminals involved. "Instead, the prime minister in her statement in the Jatiya Sangsad accused the AL for those," he mentioned, adding in such circumstances how can the investigations be neutral? Jalil said, after the August 21 carnage, if there were even a minimal democracy in the country, the government would have immediately resigned. He reiterated that AL would not sit in dialogue with the government unless it identifies those responsible for the grenade attack by a neutral international probe and punishes them. Speaking at the meeting AL Presidium Member Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir condemned the government for 'never attaching due importance to the security of Opposition Leader Sheikh Hasina'. He said, on August 21, police left the scene as soon as the first grenade exploded. Alamgir said the failure of police to instantly cordon the area to prevent the attackers from escaping also proves government's involvement in the attack. AL Relief and Social Welfare Secretary Prof Nazma Rahman warned, "If the BNP remains indifferent to the mounting fundamentalist threat, the Islamist zealots will also become a threat to Khaleda Zia and her sons, and will eventually capture the sate power." Former vice chancellor of Dhaka University Prof AK Azad Chowdhury and Falguni Hamid of Bangabandhu Sanskritik Jote also spoke in the meeting.
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