Accusing Khaleda Zia of staging a confinement drama, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said the BNP chief is not confined and she can go back home if she wants to do so. “She (Khaleda) is not confined, she can go back her home right now, if she wants to do so,” Hasina said. The Prime Minister was addressing at a views-exchange meeting with leaders of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) at her official residence Ganabhaban marking the 67th founding anniversary of the student organisation. Hasina, also the President of the ruling Awami League, said the BNP chief started staying in her Gulshan office on her own. “We had information that she had brought her desired cot to her office beforehand. Now they’re saying she is confined to her office,” she added. The Awami league chief said a couple of days back through a letter Khaleda Zia had sought greater security as she was feeling insecure. “When police gave her security at that time she is saying that she is confined,” Hasina added. Terming this a ‘confinement drama’, the Prime Minister said she did so on many occasions in the past. “During the Ershad regime, she (Khaleda) suddenly disappeared. Later, Ershad brought her out from a Purbani Hotel by breaking open the door,” Hasina said. During the 1986 election period, the Prime Minister said, Khaleda Zia again disappeared for three days. In recent times, the BNP chief had also went underground in the early morning of the BDR mutiny day. “And she had gone underground for three days,” Hasina said. But the Prime Minister said the government has no intention to take Khaleda Zia out from her office by breaking open the door as Ershad did. “Let her live wherever she wants to,” she said. She also said that Khaleda Zia staged the drama in a preplanned way just ahead of the January 5. “She planned the drama for causing loss to the country and state. You please stop this drama,’ she said. –Dhaka, Jan 4 (UNB)
