Hasina talks of govt 'hit list' of 8,000 AL leaders
Staff Correspondent
Opposition Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina yesterday alleged that the government has put 8,000 popular leaders of her party on its hit list. "Of the listed leaders, 1,000 are from Dhaka city," she said while addressing a discussion meeting in the city organised by the Jatiya Sramik League to observe the death anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The popular AL leaders became targets of the ruling coalition as part of a blueprint to clear the way for the rulers, she said. "When the AL is organising a movement, the four-party alliance is implementing its plan of eliminating its leaders," she said. She brushed aside allegations that AL leaders were killed because of intra-party feuds. Hasina said about 24,000 opposition leaders and activists have been killed since the present government came to power. The opposition leader said Prime Minister Khaleda Zia would have to bear all the responsibilities for the killing of Imam and other AL leaders including Sharif Mozammel of Dhaka city. She recalled other AL and its front organisation leaders who were killed in recent times. Hasina asked her party leaders and workers to continue the movement against the government until its ouster from power. On the abduction of two students in Chittagong, the AL chief said the Islamic Chhatra Shibir leaders in association with the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal committed the crime. She said the BNP-led ruling coalition, which had promised to launch a Jihad against corruption and violence before the election, is now itself indulging in corruption and encouraging violence. Following the Sramik League's discussion, Sheikh Hasina joined another discussion in front of the party's central office where she said Jamaat-e-Islami, a partner of the ruling alliance, has at least a dozen militant organisations across the country. "These communal parties are engaged in violence across the country with the support of the government," she said. Hasina called upon all to observe the countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal today. Earlier, Hasina rushed to the Bangabandhu Avenue in the city from Tungipara to join a condolence meeting on Sharif Mozammel, a city leader of the AL, who was killed on Tuesday.
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