Dhaka: Awami League (AL) general secretary Obaidul Quader launched a scathing attack on the BNP yesterday for accusing his party of depositing money in Swiss banks. He said it was the BNP, not the AL, that was a platform of money launderers.
“It has been proved that the BNP is a party of money launderers because its top leaders— Tarique Rahman and his brother Arafat Rahman Koko—were involved in money laundering, which has been proved in court,” he said. Quader made these remarks at a press conference after holding a meeting with the party’s departmental secretaries at AL president Sheikh Hasina’s Dhanmondi office in the city.
The AL general secretary also said that his party would take stern action if any of its leaders were found to be involved in money laundering. “There will be no compromise with money launderers,” he added. Earlier in the day, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed alleged in a press conference that AL leaders were involved in sending money to Swiss banks. According to the Swiss National Bank’s annual report titled ‘Banks in Switzerland 2016’, Bangladeshi nationals’ deposits in Swiss banks rose by 20.18 per cent compared to the preceding year.
The amount stood at Tk. 5,575 crore; it was Tk. 4,423 crore in 2015. Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, said the principles of democracy did not suit the BNP as the party did not “believe in democracy”. He also said the party was spreading one falsehood after another simply to create issues and survive by using the media. About the outcome of the party’s secretarial meeting, the AL general secretary said the list of assistant secretaries of the party’s central subcommittee would be completed within a week and their number would not exceed a hundred.
