Khaleda to be liable for any casualties: Home Minister

Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir on Sunday said BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia would have to shoulder responsibility if people die during the opposition-planned general strike for Monday and Tuesday.

At a rally in Manikganj on Saturday, Khaleda asked her supporters to successfully enforce the shutdowns as she declined to sit with government to resolve disputes.

“Some more lives will possibly be lost in the process to oust them (the government). But even then, we must take it to the streets to remove this government,” she had declared.

On Sunday, the Home Minister criticised Khaleda for such provocative statements.

At a discussion organised to mark independence leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s 93rd birth anniversary, the Minister said, “She (Khaleda) has committed a crime by making such a comment.”

“The Leader of the Opposition will have to take responsibility if anybody dies during the shutdowns,” he said.

Official estimates say at least 67 people, including seven policemen, have been killed in weeks of violence mainly between the activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and police.

Khaleda on Saturday alleged the government had used the law keepers to commit mass murders in which at least ‘170 people’ were killed.

Jamaat-e-Islami and its student front Islami Chhatra Shibir are out to thwart the ongoing trials for crimes involving the nation’s independence war in 1971.

BNP has called the trials a farce, and has been demanding that authorities must reinstall the caretaker government system to oversee next elections.

The government scrapped the system in 2011 in line with a Supreme Court order, which said the provision was contradictory to the constitution.