Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said military ruler and BNP Founder Ziaur Rahman was the real villain of the August 15, 1975 carnage while his wife Khaleda Zia played similar role behind the August 21, 2004 grenade attack.

“The real villain behind the assassination of Father of the Nation Bangabandu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was Ziaur Rahman,” she told a virtual discussion marking the National Mourning Day and the 45th martyrdom anniversary of Bangabandhu.

Drawing comparison between the two incidents, the prime minister hinted that the first attack killed Bangabandhu along with most of his family members while the second attack aimed to eliminate her alongside senior Awami League leaders.

The premier joined the discussion held at International Mother Language Institute through videoconferencing from her official residence Ganabhaban.

Sheikh Hasina said that Khandaker Moshtaque made Zia as the army chief after proclaiming himself the president grabbing the state power with the help of Zia, Rashid, Farook, Dalim and others immediately after Father of the Nation’s assassination.

“Zia’s appointment as the army chief by Moshtaq was another evidence of his (Zia’s) involvement in the August 15, 1975 carnage,” she said.

The prime minister said Khaleda Zia staged the August 21, 2004 barbaric grenade attack on an anti-terrorism rally of the Awami League to make the party bankrupt in leadership following her husband’s footsteps.

She said the killers had assassinated Bangabandhu as they failed to isolate him from the masses spearheading propaganda against him.

The prime minister said killers Farook and Rashid told in an interview with the BBC that they had tried for long to separate Bangabandhu from the people but failing to do that, they killed him.

BDST: 1620 HRS, AUG 23, 2020
AP/SMS