BNP chief Khaleda Zia is "having the time of her life" in prison as she has been granted privileges not usually allowed, says Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.



"Nowhere in the world are convicts allowed to keep maidservant," she said on Wednesday (Dec 4) while addressing a meeting of the ruling Awami League's National Committee at her official residence the Ganabhaban.
Citing the unprecedented privilege granted to Khaleda allowing an aide in jail, Hasina said, "Nowadays, people struggle to find domestic help, but Khaleda Zia got one in prison to serve her."
Awami League doesn’t believe in politics of vengeance, she said before adding: “We have set an example in the world to give Khaleda Zia a maid in jail."
The BNP chief has been suffering with knee problems for long and her being on a wheelchair was not "anything new", said the prime minister.
Khaleda Zia went under a knee cup replacement in the US after assuming office in 1991 and she later went through the same treatment in Saudi Arabia, according to her.
"She went around malls in abroad on a wheelchair for shopping ... She had even performed the Hajj on a wheelchair. It's not new to the people [of this country]," said Hasina
"GODMOTHER OF TERRORISM"
Slamming Khaleda for patronising militancy and terrorism, the prime minister hinted that she and her son Tarique Rahman was involved in deadly grenade attacks targeting her in 2004.
She also claimed that BNP founder Ziaur Rahman also involved in the 1975 assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“Bangladesh turned into a land of terrorism, militancy and corruption, whenever BNP came in power,” said the prime minister.
Referring to the violence unleashed during the BNP-led alliances countrywide blockade in 2014 and 2015, Hasina described Khaleda as the "godmother of terrorism".

“Nothing can be more heinous than the indiscriminate killing of innocent people through arson attacks,” she said adding as many as 500 people, including policemen, were killed and over 3,000 were injured in those attacks.