BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman has said a sedition case should be registered against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as he became the president of Bangladesh after returning home with Pakistani passport.
"Instead of Sheikh Mujib, a sedition case has been lodged against me for spelling out the real history," he said at a discussion programme in London on Wednesday.
A sedition case was registered against Tarique on October 19 for terming Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman "Pakbandhu (Friend of Pakistan)".
During the one-and-a-half hour address, the BNP Senior Vice-Chairman claimed that Bangabandhu had always 'considered Pakistan a safer option', even though the Bangladeshis saw him as their 'champion'.
Refuting the accusation of the ruling Awami League leaders, Tarique said Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal (JaSaD) men, not his father Ziaur Rahman, were involved in the 1975 assassination of Sheikh Mujib.
Then militant leaders like JaSaD chief and now Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu and Workers Party chief and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon cannot deny their roles in killing Sheikh Mujib, he claimed.
Ziaur Rahman did not declare martial law or the 'Indemnity ordinance' for Bangabandhu's killers, Tarique said.
He said his father was not only the first proclaimer of independence but also the first elected president of the independent Bangladesh. "Ziaur Rahman neither had assumed power forcibly nor involved in the killings of four national leaders," he added.
The self exiled BNP leader, also the elder son of the party Chairperson Khaleda Zia, came up with such reactions at the programme organised to mark the National Revolution and Solidarity Day.