DHAKA: Reiterating that Khondaker Mostaq and Ziaur Rahman were the masterminds behind the conspiracy of killing Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said that she would never let their objectives be successful.

“I only want that the conspiracies for which the Father of the Nation was killed on August 15 (in 1975), will not be successful. Their target was to make Bangladesh a failed state alongside foiling achievements of Bangladesh’s independence and destroying the ideal of the Liberation War,” she told a memorial meeting joining virtually from her official Ganabhaban residence here.

Dhaka North and South City units of Awami League organized the discussion marking the National Mourning Day and the 46th martyrdom anniversary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, at the party’s central office at Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital.

Dhaka North City AL President Sheikh Bazlur Rahman presided over the discussion while Dhaka South City AL President and General Secretary Abu Ahmed Monnafi and Humayun Kabir, spoke on the occasion.

Dhaka South and North City AL Vice Presidents Nurul Amin Ruhul, MP, and Abdul Quader Khan, Joint General Secretaries, Quazi Morshed Hossain Kamal, and Motiur Rahman Moti, Organising Secretaries Akter Hossain and M Azizul Haque Rana also took part in the meeting.

General Secretary of Dhaka North City AL SM Mannan Kochi moderated the function.

A special munajat (prayer) was offered seeking eternal peace of the departed souls of the martyrs of the August 15, 1975 carnage.

At the outset of the meeting, a minute’s silence was observed as a mark of profound respect to the memories of the martyrs of the August 15, 1975 carnage.

Referring to recent BNP-police clash at Chandrima Udyan, the Prime Minister questioned why the party engaged in clashes with the police as they know Ziaur Rahman’s body was not in the grave there.

“BNP clashed (with police) at Chandrima Udyan. Doesn’t the BNP know there is no grave or body of Zia or Zia is not there? They know well. If so, why do they stage the drama? Khaleda Zia knows well too.”

The Prime Minister questioned whether Khaleda Zia or Tarique Zia could say that they ever saw Zia’s body (in the box that was taken from Chattogram) as a bullet-hit body can easily be recognized. Actually, none saw Zia’s body in the box, she said.

She said she heard from HM Ershad that a body with a combat dress was in the box, adding that Zia was the President at that time and a president could not wear combat dress.

“Don’t BNP men know that the President can’t wear a combat dress?” she questioned.

Sheikh Hasina, also President of the Awami League, said that those who considered the country’s attaining independence as their defeat killed the Father of the Nation along with most of his family members with some local collaborators on August 15, 1975.

Ziaur Rahman, who never fought at the field level for the country during the Liberation War, was the main source of power of Khondaker Mostaq to materialize the conspiracy of killing Bangabandhu, she said, adding that Ziaur Rahman was also involved in the killing of four national leaders inside the jail.

The anti-liberation elements had killed Bangabandhu as he, with limited resources, turned Bangladesh into a least developed country after rebuilding a war-ravaged country within three and a half years, despite having no foods, no currency reserve and no money in the state exchequer, she said.

The Prime Minister said they wanted to prove that the achieving independence through the Liberation war was wrong and for that they started conspiracy since Bangabandhu returned to the country after the independence.

As part of their conspiracy, they published worldwide a picture of an insane girl named Bashanti wearing fishing net during the 1974 famine in the country’s north part to prove that the Bangabandhu government had failed.

But, the price of a fishing-net was Taka 150 while a share was Taka 6/7 at that time, she said, adding that those who wanted to send seven fleets and gave arms to Pakistan during the Liberation War were behind the conspiracy.

They (conspirators) even wanted to erase the name of Bangabandhu from history, but the name is now internationally recognized, she said.

“Now no one can erase the name anymore. They can’t remove the name of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The history they distorted is now very obvious to the people,” she added.

The PM said the conspiracies against the Father of the Nation started on the day he returned home (on January 10, 1972) after the Liberation War.

The governments of Zia, Ershad and Khaleda Zia did nothing for the country and its people in 21 years after the August 15, 1975 carnage as they pursued the legacy of making Bangladesh a failed state.

Among the three, she said, Zia was the worst as he initiated militancy and terrorism in the country and gave arms to the meritorious students as he had a plan to destroy the country forever.

But unfortunately, Zia had got huge coverage as an initiator of democracy through the country witnessed curfew every night during his tenure and he committed vote riggings and violated the country’ constitution time and again, she continued.

Due to the misrule of the governments of Zia, Ershad and Khaleda, the country’s condition had worsened from the position that the Bangabandhu government left, she said.

After assuming office in 1996, the Prime Minister said she found that people had been suffering from hunger and there were no appropriate measures of giving people clothes, education, accommodation and treatment.

Following the footsteps of the Father of the Nation, she said, her government has turned Bangladesh into a developing nation and vowed to build the ‘Golden Bangladesh’ free from hunger and poverty as dreamt by Bangabandhu.

The premier said that her government had reduced the poverty rate to 20 percent and increased the per capita income to $2227 and foreign reserve to $48 billion from $3 billion during BNP government.

Noting that she had nothing to seek rather she wants to materialize the dream of Bangabandhu, Sheikh Hasina said that she considers the Awami League and Bangladesh as her family as millions of people and Awami League leaders and activists welcomed her at the airport when she returned to the country in 1981.

Greeting AL leaders and workers for staying beside the people during the coronavirus pandemic, she asked the leaders and activists of the Awami League to stand by the people in any disasters as it was a lesson from Bangabandhu.