...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums..
yesterday warned that opposition leader
Khaleda ZiaThree-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
would have to face trial for killing more than 20 people during hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
hours.
"By the grace of Allah, the trial of those killings will be held," she said, adding that the opposition leader has to take the responsibility for the killings.
Addressing a mammoth rally at Kotalipara in Gopalganj, the premier also expressed her apprehension that the opposition leader might try again to kill her.
"She [Khaleda] wants a Hasina-free Bangladesh, she failed to kill me earlier ... she might try again to kill me," Hasina said.
The opposition leader killed more than 24 Awami League leaders and activists through grenade attacks on August 21, 2004, and she is now killing people by imposing shutdowns and setting fire to vehicles, the premier said.
"We came to power with a majority and then we amended the constitution ... We have sealed the scope of grabbing power illegally," she told the rally at Bhangarhat Talimpur Telihati High School ground.
Hasina also said the opposition leader did not want to participate in the election as she would not be able to rig polls this time. She [Khaleda] never liked free, fair and neutral elections.
Referring to her recent phone conversation with the opposition leader, the Awami League chief said she made the phone call thinking about people's welfare.
"I invited her [Khaleda], but she rejected. She enforced hartals instead and killed 20 people during the shutdowns," the premier said.
She also sought vote for the Awami League (AL) in the next election to complete the unfinished development works of her government.