Staff Reporter:
Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud yesterday alleged that BNP was involved in the conspiracy of stag-ing the BDR mutiny to kill the country’s smart army officers in 2009.
“It is as clear as daylight that BNP lost its sense (after losing in polls in 2009) and they staged the BDR mutiny through conspiracy and our smart officers were killed,” he told reporters at his residence while responding to a question.
Responding to BNP’s allegation that the then newly elected Awami League government was involved in the BDR mutiny, the minister questioned, “Can the government do such a thing after forming a govern-ment with huge mandate?”
Many of those who were killed in the mutiny belonged to Awami League family, said Hasan Mahmud who is also an Awami League Joint General Secretary.
On February 25, 2009, several hundred Bangladesh Rifles (now BGB) members staged an armed mutiny at the force’s Pilkhana headquarters and killed 74 people, including 57 army officers.
Hasan Mahmud said, on that day, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia came out from her cantonment resi-dence well ahead of the mutiny though she normally leaves bed late.
“Why did she leave bed so early on that day? That means she knew about the mutiny beforehand,” he claimed.
The foreign minister said the government obtained Khaleda Zia’s phone call records and knows how many times she talked to London. “So, it’s very clear that BNP is involved in it,” he added.
Hasan Mahmud said this time BNP first thought that the election would not take place, and later on they wanted to create anarchy so that voters could not cast their votes.
However, voters came out in a big way, and Awami League won the violence-free election, he added.
Now, he said BNP has lost its control after seeing that the entire world showed interest to work with the current Awami League government.
Regarding his meeting with US high delegation on Sunday, the foreign minister said, he had a very frank and open discussion with the US side to take Dhaka-Washington ties to a new height.
Replying a question on US delegation’s meeting with a particular quarter of civil society, Hasan Mahmud said the government does not want to be bothered with whom the US delegation held meetings while Washington showed it willingness to bring Bangladesh-US relations to a new high.
“In future, you will see they (the US) would meet people belonging to all quarters,” Hasan Mahmud observed.
Later, the foreign minister exchanged views with a visiting delegation of Agartala Press Club at his resi-dence.
