BNP says Awami netas living in India conspiring to destabilise Bangladesh

DHAKA: Former PM Khaleda Zia ’s BNP said Friday senior members of banned Awami League “currently residing in Delhi” are conspiring to destabilise the country and derail the process for the Feb election.

Bangladesh has alleged that besides former PM Sheikh Hasina, “many” Awami League members fled to India after a “mass uprising” led to her govt’s fall last year. “Some individuals in Bangladesh are collaborating with these politicians under Delhi’s influence to prevent the election from taking place under the interim govt,” senior BNP member Zainul Abedin Farroque said.

Farroque also called on Bangladesh’s largest Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) to apologise to the nation for its past mistakes — an apparent reference to the genocide during the 1971 Liberation War — and accused it of using religious sentiments to seek support ahead of the election. Meanwhile, a mob attacked Jatiya Party’s office in Dhaka Friday.