Govt framing false cases to harass leaders: AL

The coalition of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami is plotting to harass its political opponents, senior AL leaders alleged at a press conference at the party's Dhanmondi office and vowed to face 'the conspiracy' both legally and politically.

The press conference was organised to protest submission of a chargesheet in Pabna Pourasabha chairman Shahidullah Bachhu killing case against frontline AL leader Nasim.

Bachhu was killed in April 1997 and police filed the chargesheet recently.

"We will face it legally and politically," said Nasim, commenting on the charges against him. He demanded withdrawal of the chargesheet, saying it was filed to hide the real killers.

"Bachhu was a party leader and very close to me. But the chargesheet said I met some BNP and Jatiya Party leaders to kill him. This line of the chargesheet is enough to prove the use of falsehood by the coalition government," Nasim said.

Asked why the chargesheet was not filed during the previous AL government, Nasim said the investigation was taking time to find out the killers of Bachhu.

The AL did not intend to harass its political rivals by implicating them in the case, he said.

AL presidium members Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta, Motia Chowdhury, General Secretary Abdul Jalil, Obaidul Kader, Mukul Bose, Shudhangshu Shekhar Halder, Akhteruzzaman, Dr Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin, Abdul Mannan Khan, Ashim Kumar Ukil and BM Mojammel Huq were present.

The AL leaders alleged that charges were pressed against Nasim as instructed by a Dhaka-based senior official of the Criminal Investigation Department of police.

Sengupta demanded a judicial probe into Bachhu killing to unmask the real killers.

Jalil said during the killing Nasim was not even in Pabna.

Failing to improve law and order the alliance government is trying to shift the blame on to the opposition and exterminate the leaders and activists of the AL.

The carnage of five people in Pabna and 11 in Banshkhali of Chittagong amply shows the free fall of law and order under the alliance rule, Jalil said.