Awami League President and five-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that fascist Muhammad Yunus and the BNP-Jamaat clique carried out intense torture on her party leaders and activists for their greed for power.
โHad we taken revenge after coming to power in 2009, their existence would have been at stake. But we did not do it. I showed tolerance and worked for the countryโs development,โ Jananetri Sheikh Hasina said at a virtual discussion.
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โWe wholeheartedly worked for the peopleโs welfare. But what have we gotten in return?
โNow we cannot stay at home. Our houses are being burned to ashes. Our leaders, workers, and their family members are being brutally killed.โ
She said that Yunus has ordered the filing of as many false and fictitious cases against Awami League leaders and activists as possible, regardless of the outcome. They are doing it to harass and terrorise people.
She mentioned that the regimes of General Ayub Khan, General Ziaur Rahman, General HM Ershad, and Khaleda Zia had tortured the Awami League leaders and activists, but they failed to eliminate this party of the people.
They will never be successful, Sheikh Hasina added.
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Earlier, the Awami League announced a nationwide hartal for Sunday in protest against the massacre in Gopalganj on Wednesday and subsequent raids by the joint forces amid a curfew.
Party leaders and workers have been asked to observe the general strike peacefully.
Meanwhile, the Sheikh Hasina Sangram Parishad has declared a remittance shutdown protesting the Gopalganj massacre.
Sheikh Hasina said Yunus has collected information on the Awami League activists at the upazila and union levels using hired agents and made a database to identify the popular leaders, future leaders, and their relatives, she said in her recent audio speech.
His followers are admitting their role in arson attacks and police murders. But false cases are being filed against the Awami League members, she added.
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The Yunus Gang has created an atmosphere of terror and anarchy with the help of the associates, Jamaat-Shibir and BNP, as during the Liberation War and the post-2001 election period.
She said Yunus masterminded the killings during the anti-quota movement to overthrow her government and ordered the filing of cases accusing her of authorising the murders.
Sheikh Hasina asked the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and Amnesty International to publish the list of the 1,400 deceased.
She also called for a proper investigation into the deaths to unearth the mystery behind the โmeticulously designedโ killings of protesters, ordinary people, and the police, orchestrated by Muhammad Yunus and his gang.
โWhen six people were killed [on July 16], I ordered the formation of a judicial inquiry committee and asked the United Nations to investigate the deaths. Why would I have formed the inquiry committee had I ordered the murders?
โI did it because I wanted to know how these killings took place and who killed them. Our police force did not use such lethal bullets,โ she said, blaming Yunus for the planned murders using 7.62-grade bullets.
Sheikh Hasina said the UN and London-based human rights group Amnesty International should thoroughly investigate each death during the protest and post-August 5 period, exhume the bodies, and conduct forensics.
โI am challenging them: give me the list of 1,400 persons.โ
They should investigate the list of 834 people published by the governmentโs gazette because there are discrepancies and false claims. Many of them were killed during arson attacks or looting, with some dying from cardiac arrest. Even some of the deceased have returned home, Sheikh Hasina said.
She added that the UN fact-finding mission did not pay heed to the information provided by the Awami League. They prepared the report based on prescriptions given by the Yunus Gang to malign her government.
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