The Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka on Monday, taking cognisance of a sedition case, summoned Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia, asking her to explain her remarks on the country’s Liberation War martyrs.
The sedition case, already approved by the government, has been lodged by Momtaz Uddin Mehedi, a lawyer and also a member of the ruling Awami League. A lawyer representing the plaintiff said the Metropolitan Magistrate has ordered Khaleda Zia to appear before the court by March 3.
Ms. Khaleda had, at a programme on December 21 last year, abruptly raised questions on a nationally sensitive issue involving the number of nation’s Liberation War martyrs. She had also claimed that, contrary to what is given in history, the country’s slain founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had wanted to become the Prime Minister of an “undivided Pakistan” rather than leading the nation to independence. Her comments, coinciding with the recent denial of war atrocities by Pakistani troops in Bangladesh, had sparked widespread protests. However, BNP leaders, including her advisor Khandker Mahbub Hossain, claimed that Khaleda’s remarks did not constitute sedition.
Anything that is said, in speech or in writing, against the creation of Bangladesh and its sovereignty is treated as an “offence against the state”. The maximum punishment for such an offence is a rigorous imprisonment for 10 years, along with a fine.
