Killers, corrupts forged unity against govt: PM

Desk Report: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the killers, money-launderers and interest-takers became united against the Awami League government and feared the country will be destroyed if they could come to power.

“These characters will plunder national wealth, destroy the country and become cohorts of the anti-liberation forces if they come to power. So the people will have to think about them,” she told a civic reception hosted in her honour by expatriates Bangladeshis living in the USA.

The premier harshly criticized the formation of a new anti-government alliance led by Dr Kamal Hossain and Dr Badruddoza Chowdhury and wondered how they will fight corruption keeping corrupts elements along with them.

“Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman were convicted in corruption charges and we’ve brought back the money they siphoned off abroad. Now Dr Kamal Hossain, Badruddoza Chowdhury and Mahmudur Rahman Manna will fight the graft taking these corrupt elements with them,” she said.

She wondered that former caretaker government adviser Barrister Moinul Hosein and BNP leader Barrister Moudud Ahmed too lent their support to the new alliance and recalled that both were convicted previously in graft charges.

The premier said Moinul Hosein was convicted in the Sazu Hossain versus the state case for grabbing of a house in city’s Kakrail area and Moudud Ahmed was convicted in a graft case but military dictator H M Ershad pardoned him and subsequently inducted him in his regime.

AL Presidium Member Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and AL’s Office Secretary Dr Abdus Sobhan Golap spoke at the function held at Hotel New York Hilton Midtown here on Sunday evening, while US chapter AL President Dr Siddikur Rahman in the chair.

PM’s Energy Adviser Dr Towfik-e-Elahi Chowdhury, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam and AL Joint Secretary and former foreign minister Dr Dipu Moni were present on the dais, among others.

Earlier,  Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina arrived in the afternoon local time (BD time on Monday morning) from London on a weeklong official visit to the United States to attend the 73rd Session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly.

A British Airways flight carrying the premier and her entourage members landed at Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey at 2:10 pm local time.

Source: BSS

risingbd/Sept 24, 2018/Mukul