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Awami League (AL) General Secretary Abdul Jalil MP said the government must ensure a transparent and open trial of Shaekh Abdur Rahman, the outlawed JMB chieftain, to prove his arrest was not a pre-planned drama.
Speaking at a press briefing at the AL central office at Bangabandhu Avenue Sunday, he also demanded that Shaekh Rahman should be allowed to talk to the media.
The AL leader further suggested that Ministers and MPs who had allegedly given shelter to the militants must be interrogated as well.
Jalil's remarks came in response to BNP Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan's comments Saturday when he asked the opposition to spell out what could be the convenient time for arresting the Shaekh and when it would not be called a 'drama.'
"Mannan Bhuiyan made a confusing remark and made it to cover the facts," Jalil alleged and urged Bhuiyan to relate the facts.
"The drama of his surrender was staged to divert public attention when the opposition movement for reforms and protests against the crises of fertiliser, electricity and fuel are gaining momentum," he said.
"The other purpose of the pre-planned drama," he said, "was to mislead the international community, staged at a time when US President Bush was on tour of South Asia."
"How the Shaekh, accompanied by his entire family, could travel across the country without being in disguise?" the AL leader questioned. "Who protected him and gave him such courage and security?"
He further pointed out that Shaekh Rahman had declared that he would embrace martyrdom and would never surrender and asked, "But at whose assurance did he later surrender? Why he was not permitted to talk to the media? What was the role of the intelligence agencies in Sylhet?" Jalil said.
He wanted to know that when books written by Golam Azam and Moududi were found in the hideout of Shaekh Rahman why were those excluded from the police seizure list?
He said Matiur Rahman Nizami of Jamaat-e-Islami had reportedly told US State Department official Cristina Rocca that the militants were now repentant for what they had done.
"Did the militants tell the Minister they were repentant?" Jalil questioned. "If so, what relation do they have with the minister that they could have told him that?"
The AL General Secretary demanded that sedition charge be brought against the Shaikh as he conspired against the country or else the government should explain why sedition charge would not be brought against him.
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