FROM JATIYA SANGSAD: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday claimed that she was the first person to condemn the murder of former President Ziaur Rahman, founder of BNP.

“I was the first one who gave statement condemning the murder of General Zia, also founding president of Bangladesh Nationalist Party,” she said.

The premier came up with assertion while addressing parliament in response to a query of Begum Fazilatunnesa MP.

Earlier in the day, day’s proceedings of the JS started at 7:00pm with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.

Recollecting the memory of those days, she said, “Ziaur Rahman always erected hindrances so that my younger sister Sheikh Rehana and I cannot return to Bangladesh. But I returned crossing every hurdle as Awami League selected me as party president in 1981. On May 28, I went Sylhet to pray at the Majar of Hazrat Shahjalal (R).”

“Later on May 29, I along my entourage boarded on train to return to Dhaka. But we had to wait on the way as a rail bridge was destroyed due to flood water. We reached at Akhaura in the morning after the bridge was repaired and came to know that Ziaur Rahman had been murdered,” she added.

She further said, “All the Dhaka-bound trains were closed and we went to Robiul’s house. After taking lunch there, we went to Ivy Rahman’s father’s house at Bhairab. On the next day, I wrote a statement and sent it to Dhaka through Mostafa Mohsin Tutul.”

“The main theme of the statement was—“The country must be ruled according to the Constitution and there can be no deviation of this that means no army person should seize power,”” she added.

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BDST: 2050 HRS, SEP 17, 2014