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BJP, IOJ leaders refuse to refute comments

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia slated the chiefs of her two coalition partners on Monday, as she was angered by their outspoken criticism of the government for what they said was its failure to arrest any bomb attacker, party colleagues said.
Khaleda asked Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) Chairman Naziur Rahman Manzur and Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ) Chairman Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini to refute their comments published in newspapers in the wake of deadly bomb blasts that killed 19 people and injured 200 others on Saturday.
But the alliance leaders called to
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separate meetings at the Prime Minister's Office refused to comply with Khaleda's instruction outright, prompting a debate between them, their party colleagues said.
Both leaders who expressed grievances to their colleagues after the meetings would not give comments to The Daily Star on the issue.
The prime minister asked the BJP chairman to deny his comment that the attacks were launched to kill Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina, who escaped unscathed from an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue.
Khaleda, also BNP chairperson, said the government was not responsible for the attacks, leading the BJP chairman to argue: "What the police and other agencies did to prevent the attacks? Why didn't the government hand over the bodies to shocked families without delay?"
Khaleda said the police and intelligence agents did their duty properly and pointed to the regime of HM Ershad's Jatiya Party that did not hand
over the body of Nur Hossain, killed in an anti-autocracy movement in 1987.
A colleague quoted Manzur as saying: "Everybody knows the Jatiya Party government was autocratic, but the present government is democratic."
Manzur joined a party meeting at his residence and disclosed a little about the meeting with the prime minister.
The BJP leaders alleged the criminal activities of the fundamentalist group increased because of Jamaat-e-Islami's part in the government and suggested the fundamentalists should be dropped from the cabinet, meeting sources said.
A senior leader told The Daily Star that the issue would be discussed at a party presidium meeting to reach a decision to ask Khaleda to drop Jamaat leaders from the cabinet.
In a separate meeting, the prime minister asked IOJ leader Amini to contradict his comment published in a newspaper, which prompted refusal from him.