Dhaka: BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Thursday alleged that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is talking about their party founder Ziaur Rahman's involvement in the August 15, 1975 murder incident of Bangabandhu and most of his family members out of her jealousy.

"She (Hasina) yesterday (Wednesday) wanted to say Ziaur Rahman and many other people had involvement in the murder of late Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Why do you want to repeatedly implicate Ziaur Rahman in it?" he said.

Speaking at a milad mahfil, the BNP leader further said, "Did you (PM) forget Ziaur Rahman was not the then army chief, as he was the second in command? What could he do going beyond the order of the army chief. You're saying this out of your jealousy as BNP which was founded by him (Zia) is now more popular than Awami League."

Dhaka north city unit BNP arranged the programme at BNP's Nayapaltan central office, seeking early recovery of its chairperson Khaleda Zia who underwent a surgery in her right eye in London last week.

At a discussion here on Wednesday, the Prime Minister renewed her allegation that Khandaker Mostaque and Ziaur Rahman had their part in the conspiracy to kill Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members.

Rizvi said then army chief KM Shafiullah advised President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to flee the house crossing its wall. "A coward was the army chief at that time. But, you (Hasina) later made him an MP. You didn't say anything about him."

He also alleged that the killers of Bangabandhu are still there in Awami League. "How could you make HT Imam your adviser who had administrated the oath-taking ceremony of Mostaque's cabinet crossing your father's bloody dead body? You didn't talk about it."

The BNP leader said Sheikh Hasina has no anger on those who criticised Bangabandhu and joined Mostaque's cabinet after his assassination. "Your anger is only on Ziaur Rahman."

Referring to Chief Justice SK Sinha's comment that the big fish who had been involved with Mujibur Rahman's murder, went unpunished due to week investigation, Rizvi said these people are still around Sheikh Hasina. "They're with you, but you won't take any action against them. You will only target them who are against you."

He said Awami League has long been trying to belittle Zia through false propaganda. "You won't be able to remove his name from the hearts of people through conspiracy and false campaign regulating the media."