Khaleda ZiaThree-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
last night condemned Thursday's attacks on religious minorities at different parts of the country.
In a statement, signed by her Press Secretary Maruf Kamal Khan, she also demanded punishment to the perpetrators.
She, however, made no mention of BNP ally Jamaat-e-Islami
...
The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka
The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an
independentbranch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
which, according to victims, unleashed terror
against the Hindus, burning down houses and temples, shortly after a war crimes tribunal gave death sentence to Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedi
...Islamic orator and politician. He was a former Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2008, and is one of the most prominent leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami...
On March 1, the opposition leader categorically blamed the government for the "planned attack aimed to divert people's democratic movement and destroy the country's communal harmony".
Now, four days after the atrocities against minorities, Khaleda demands the government identify and punish the perpetrators through neutral investigation and compensate the victims.
The statement urged the media not to publish anything with prejudice or get confused with propaganda from a certain quarter.
Saying attempts were being made to destroy the existing religious harmony, Khaleda called for restraint.
She also said attacks on minorities were taking place at a time when people were waging movement against the "government's fascism
...a political system developed in Italy symbolized by the Roman
fasces-- thin reeds, each flimsy in itself but unbreakable when bound into a bundle. The word is nowadays thrown around by all sorts of people who have no idea what they're talking about...
and indiscriminate killings across the country".