Dhaka, June 29: Opposition Awami League (AL) has accused Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia and Home Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury of shielding the "real" criminals in an illegal arms recovery case and targetting its leaders instead. The Prime Minister and the Home Minister has accused the league of being involved in ferrying ammunition and explosives without carrying any investigation, AL general secretary Abdul Jalil was quoted as saying by the local media today.
Chowdhury had accused the opposition in a statement he made in the parliament, while Begum Zia levelled the charges in a public speech yesterday, Jalil said.
He accused the ruling Bangladesh National Party of engaging in a "dirty game" of hiding actual criminals and defaming the opposition by levelling such charges.
"It has become a habit of both Prime Minister and Home Minister to make statement and speak out accusing AL for any criminal acts anywhere in the country after the alliance government came to power," Jalil said.
Chowdhury told the parliament yesterday that the Bogra ammunition haul made him sense an AL conspiracy to push the nation to anarchy, the daily star reported.
Deputy leader of opposition in parliament Abdul Hamid criticised the Home Minister's statement and accused the government of planting the bullets and explosives to harass league leaders across the country.
In a biggest ever arms haul, police recovered over 62,000 bullets of Chinese rifle and nearly 120 kg explosives from an abandoned truck near the house of Awami League leader in a village in Kahalu sub-district of northern Bogra district Friday night. Bureau Report