LGRD and Cooperative Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan yesterday accused the Awami League of carrying out a propaganda campaign in a bid to portray Bangladesh as a 'fundamentalist country'.

The AL is actually tainting the country's image abroad while trying to undermine the BNP for its political gains, he said.

Bhuiyan, also the general secretary of BNP, was addressing a discussion organised by the Hindu Buddhist Christian Welfare Trust at the Engineers' Institute auditorium on the occasion of Janmastami, a Hindu religious festival marking the birth of Lord Krishna.

The minister alleged that the AL did not want a fair investigation into the August 21 grenade attack on its rally as it was trying to project Bangladesh as a 'terrorist country'.

"A democratic country like Bangladesh cannot be identified as a terrorist country if it witnesses only a handful of terrorist activities," he added.

"Someincidents of bomb blasts took place in the country during our rule and we could not track down the criminals. It may be our failure, but what about the

bomb blasts that took place during the AL rule," Bhuiyan said.

The LGRD minister also said the negative propaganda of the opposition parties was scaring off the foreign investors.

BNP Joint Secretary Goyeshwar Chandra Roy said political parties in Bangladesh sometimes use religion to

go to power.

Presided over by State Minister for Water Resources Goutam Chakraborty, the meeting was also addressed by joint secretaries of Hindu Buddhist Christian Welfare Front Prof Sukamal Barua, Prof Paresh Chandra Mandal and Pramath Ranjan Biswas.