Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader said BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman was the mastermind behind the August 21 grenade attack.

“In 2004, the then prince of Hawa Bhaban, Tarique Rahman, gave directives to carry out an operation on August 21,” he told a protest and memorial meeting in front of the AL’s Bangabandhu Avenue central office here.

The ruling Awami League organised the meeting, protecting the August 21 grenade attack and remembering the martyrs of the barbaric incident.

AL President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presided over the memorial meeting.

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, said Tarique Rahman convicted in money laundering and the August 21 grenade attack cases, is on the run abroad like a coward.

“Fakhrul Saheb (BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir), your future prime minister was a money launderer and the mastermind behind the August 21 grenade attack,” he said.

Responding to an allegation of BNP leaders that the Awami League is eliminating the Zia family, the AL general secretary said it is a farcical allegation.

“How strange the allegation is. What a farce it is..... who perpetrated the 1975 carnage? Give us the answer,” Quader said.

“Our leader Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana were abroad on that day. And Bangabandhu's family members including minor Russell, Begum Mujib, pregnant lady Arju Moni and newly married Sultana and Rozi were killed. Who made the target of wiping out the Bangabandhu’s entire family? Ziaur Rahman was the mastermind behind the carnage,” he said.

Quader said Zia wiped out the Bangabandhu family to fulfill his political ambition and the November 3 was in continuation of the August 15 carnage. Later, Zia killed four national leaders, who were close associates of Bangabandhu and organisers of the liberation war on November 3, 1975 to fulfill his political lust.

To wipe out the spirit of liberation war and the entire family of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the August 15 carnage was carried out, he said, adding that BNP-Jamaat conducted the grenade attack on August 21 in 2004 to kill AL President Sheikh Hasina.

“When did we conduct any such attack to destroy Zia family?” he asked?

Claiming that the Awami League does not believe in the politics of killing and conspiracy, Quader said: “We never do the politics of conspiracy. Instead, we became the victims of conspiracy.”

Asking the AL party leaders and workers and the country’s people to remain alert against the conspiracy of BNP and its allies, Quader said BNP and its allies are continuously trying to destroy the AL.

“To keep the flag of Bangladesh high and uphold the ideals of the liberation war in the soil of Bangladesh, we must fight to resist the evil forces,” Quader said.