People will reject anti-liberation forces: Rizvi

Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, senior joint secretary general of the BNP and political adviser to the Prime Minister, declared on Wednesday that the people of Bangladesh will never again afford an opportunity to forces opposed to the 1971 Liberation War, speaking after paying tribute at the grave of the late Arafat Rahman Koko in Banani on what would have been his 57th birthday.

Rizvi alleged that Sheikh Hasina had sheltered under Pakistani patronage during the Liberation War, a legacy he claimed drove her subsequent efforts to conspire against the family of Ziaur Rahman, the man he described as the proclaimer of independence. He further asserted that Koko had died at the height of what Rizvi characterised as fascist repression, claiming that Hasina, now a fugitive convict, had spared no effort in her attempts to destabilise the family through various means.

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Rizvi contended that the fallen government had deliberately sought to dismantle the descendants of martyred President Ziaur Rahman precisely because they belonged to a family of freedom fighters, adding that Hasina had never been able to accept the patriotism attributed to the Zia family. He concluded by asserting that she had ultimately fled the country in the face of mounting public resistance.