The BNP has hit back at Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for claiming that its chief Khaleda Zia had created the scope for HM Ershad to usurp power in 1982.

Khaleda had nothing to with HM Ershad’s military takeover of 1982, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told the media on Monday (Sept 19).

“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s speech in Parliament relating Khaleda Zia with Ershad’s takeover is untrue.”

He added that the nation cannot be “hoodwinked by spreading such false information” about Khaleda.

Fakhrul’s remarks came a day after the prime minister said in Parliament, that it was Khaleda who created a scope for Ershad to grab power after the “1981 farcical general election.”

She said that the polls took place without voters and in exchange of it, the former military dictator gave Khaleda various facilities, including two houses and Tk 1 million.

Hasina added that this is why BNP didn’t continue with the case of its founder Ziaur Rahman’s assassination and held Ershad responsible after several years in 1991.

Fakhrul said that Hasina was happy with Ershad’s dictatorship and “she herself said I’m not unhappy.”

Saying that Jatiya Party was currently the government’s “domesticated opposition party,” and after Ershad’s death his widow Raushan Ershad has become the “domesticated leader of Opposition.”

The senior BNP politician reiterated that their chief who is currently serving time on graft charges will be freed through mass movement and protest and it was the only way to bring back democracy in the country.