DHAKA: BNP Standing Committee Member Moudud Ahmed on Monday said the remarks of Joint Secretary General of the party Ruhul Kabir Rizvi over his latest book ‘Bangladesh: Emergency and the Aftermath: 2007-2008’ hurt him.

“I am shocked because I always considered Rizvi like my younger brother. He is a learned person and I love him. But I did not expect such comments from him,” he said.

Moudud made the assertion in a press briefing in front of the annex building of the Supreme Court at noon.

He added: “My fellow party leader is disgruntled about my latest book whereas I feared the government would be displeased with it! He surely will be repentant if he reads the book cover to cover.”

Senior BNP leader also said, “I will talk about my house. The book was written a long time ago. I do politics. I am a leader of opposition party and incumbent government has started a process to wipe out opposition parties since 2012. But the book was written around 6/7 years ago. Hence, these two issues are not interrelated.”

Moudud Ahmed further said, “There can be no question of pleasing the government to save my house. There are 18 cases filed against me.”

He added: “The main theme of the book is how the then caretaker government tortured politicians and violated human rights especially at the end of their tenure they conspired to bring Awami League in power and to weaken BNP.”

He also said, “Writing a book is different matter… I do not write books as a party member rather as a political scientist.”

On Monday morning, BNP acting joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi claimed that BNP standing committee member Barrister Moudud Ahmed wrote the book to please incumbent government.

He also claimed that Moudud wrote against BNP, its chairperson Khaleda Zia and her two sons--Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman Koko--to protect him and his home.

Moudud Ahmed recently published the book where he wrote that the release of Khaleda’s two sons Tarique and Koko was most important to her. She was firm about her sons’ release that she disagreed to sit in discussion in the time.

Moudud also claimed in the book that BNP drowned for their excessive love for Jamaat-e-Islami.

BDST: 1625 HRS, SEP 15, 2014