Dhaka: Another spat has broken out
between the `battling Begums` in Bangladesh as Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina blamed the previous Khaleda Zia-led government
for masterminding the 2004 deadly grenade attack on her.
"Such an attack could not be a carried out without the
involvement of the then government," Hasina said during a
party rally yesterday commemorating the sixth anniversary of
the grenade attack in Awami League rally that killed 24 people
and injured nearly 300 others.
Sheikh Hasina was also present in the rally and had
escaped the attack.
"The grenade attack was carried out in a planned way
under direct patronisation of the then ruling party. There is
no doubt about it," she said.
"Certain activities of the then BNP-Jamaat coalition
government point to the fact that they had direct links with
the attack and there is no doubt about it," Hasina was quoted
as saying by The Daily Star.
"Investigation is going on. Those who killed so many
innocent people must be tried and punished to put an end to
the politics of killing in the country," she said.
She said the BNP-led four-party coalition government
tried to protect the attackers by different means.
She said the law enforcers, who were on duty at the
venue, did not come forward to the victims` aid after the
attack. She alleged that the previous BNP-Jamaat government
neither investigated the incident nor allowed them to speak
about the grenade attack in parliament.
Bangladesh Home Minister Sahara Khatun earlier this
week has said that the "godfathers" of the 2004 grenade
attack on Awami League rally to assassinate Sheikh Hasina
would be meted out "exemplary punishment" after the completion
of the reinvestigation into the case.
PTI
