Hasina blasts govt for price spike at Jail Killing Day talk

"People now reel under the grip of criminals harboured by the ruling alliance," Hasina, also president of the Awami League, alleged in her address to a discussion at the Institution of Engineers, Bangl-adesh to mark the Jail Killing Day.

"Prices of essentials went beyond the easy reach of people, proving the failure of the government," she said, adding people have lost confidence in the coalition over the first two years of its rule.

Hasina accused the government of hiking the prices of essentials only to make quick money during Ramadan. "Duty on onion was waived only for the interest of pro-government businesspeople," she alleged.

Yesterday was the 28th death anniversary of four national leaders -- Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, AHM Quamruzzaman and M Mansur Ali -- who were gunned down by a set of disgruntled army men in Dhaka Central Jail in 1975.

The killing episode came two months and 18 days after Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members were assassinated in a military putsch.

Terming the jail killing a dark part of the nation's history, the AL president said, "The killings of Bangabandhu and four other national leaders have ruined the spirit of the War of Independence. The defeated forces of 1971 took revenge through the killing spree.

The same forces are now steering the country to destruction."

Hasina accused late president Ziaur Rahman of favouring the self-proclaimed killers of Bangabandhu and the four national leaders and also the present prime minister of reinstating one of them in his foreign ministry job after he was suspended.

On an allegation of corruption against a High Court additional judge, the leader of the opposition said politicisation of the judiciary led to such an incident.

The AL leaders Abdus Samad Azad, Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Abdul Jalil, Suranjit Sengupta, Motia Chowdhury, Mohammad Nasim and Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj addressed the programme.

President of Supreme Court Bar Association Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud and Editor of the Bhorer Kagoj Abed Khan were also present.

In observance of the day, the AL hoisted national and party flags at half-mast and black flags at party offices in Dhaka and elsewhere.

Leaders and workers, wearing black badges, placed wreaths at the portrait of Bangabandhu at Bangabandhu Memorial Museum and graves of the national leaders at Banani graveyard and offered fateha, and organised milad mahfils and special prayers.