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ISI Funding

Govt waiting for copy of testimony

BNP lodges protest with Khaleej Times

Diplomatic Correspondent
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni yesterday said her ministry is waiting for a transcript of the testimony of former ISI chief Asad Durrani in Pakistan Supreme Court.
“We have sought the transcript. After getting the transcript, we will be able to speak about it," she said when asked about Pakistan foreign ministry's statement regarding the ISI funding issue.
Replying to a question at a press conference at the foreign ministry, Dipu Moni said she has heard
about Pakistan foreign ministry's denial of the alleged ISI funding of BNP in 1991, but insisted they were waiting for the transcript.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and some senior leaders of the ruling Awami League alleged that BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia had taken Rs 5 crore from the Pakistan spy agency ISI before the general elections in 1991.
Pakistan foreign ministry spokesperson Abdul Basit, at a press briefing in Islamabad on Thursday, denied the allegation reported in some Bangladesh dailies that the former ISI director general admitted in the Supreme Court that they had financed BNP for the 1991 parliamentary polls.
When this correspondent drew her attention to the remarks of the Pakistan foreign office spokesperson, Dipu Moni said she has
heard about it but has not seen the transcript.
Asked about the Saudi intelligence team coming to Dhaka to help investigate the killing of Saudi embassy official Khalaf Al-Ali on March 6 in Dhaka, the foreign minister referred to her meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal in Riyadh on March 21 when he agreed to her proposal for sending an expert team to Dhaka soon.
She said the Saudi government has expressed full trust and confidence in the investigation being carried out by the Bangladesh government.
Dipu Moni said in the past, teams from foreign intelligence agencies had come to Dhaka to assist the local investigation in the BDR carnage and August 21 grenade attacks. The probe team that came after the Aug 21 grenade attack in a statement alleged that evidence
was destroyed immediately after the incident.
She claimed that bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia are now the best compared with that at any time in the past, and she was highly critical of those propagating that the Saudi government would send back Bangladeshis from the kingdom to retaliate the killing of Khalaf.
“They should remember that this situation will be a disaster not for the government but for the country," she said, adding as long as such mindset and political thinking exist, the country will limp.
BNP REJOINDER
BNP in a rejoinder yesterday protested a Khaleej Times report that quoted former ISI chief Asad Durrani as saying Khaleda Zia received money from the Pakistani intelligence agency before the 1991 national polls.
Headlined “Asghar
Khan's petition finally comes up for hearing”, the report containing a purported confession of Durrani at the Pakistan Supreme Court has drawn the party's attention, the rejoinder said.
By his own admission, Gen Durrani had directly delivered the money to individual politicians and groups for the purpose of defeating the Pakistan People's Party under Benazir Bhutto in the 1990 elections of the country, the newspaper wrote on March 3.
“A total of Rs 140 million was disbursed after Mehran Bank illegally advanced it to the ISI account. Another Rs50 million was allegedly paid to Bangladesh's Khalida Zia to help her in polls against Hasina Wajid's Awami League generally perceived by Pakistan's security establishment as pro-India,” it also said.
The news on Khaleda's
alleged link with InterServices Intelligence took no time to open the floodgates of criticism against BNP by arch rival the ruling Awami League and other political opponents.
Yesterday, the main oppo-sition party's rejoinder termed the portion of the report pertaining to Bangladesh and Khaleda Zia totally baseless, concocted, mischievous and fully ill-motivated.
“She [Khaleda] is the most popular living leader in our country. She has never taken any fund from any foreign source in any election or for any other purposes. In fact, as a nationalist political party the BNP in principle does not believe in foreign funding.
“Unfortunately, many local and Indian media have published news items based on this concocted allegation against Khaleda Zia and BNP. Our political oppo-
nents have used this to sully the image of Khaleda Zia and as a political tool.”
Sent by BNP's acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir to the Khaleej Times editor, the rejoinder was also circulated among the local media.
Durrani has been interviewed by various media in Bangladesh where he categorically said his statement did not include any individual or party outside Pakistan and that the story in Khaleej Times relating to this is falsely attributed to him, BNP claimed.
A spokesperson of the Pakistan foreign ministry also has rejected the allegation of funding BNP by the spy agency, it added.
The BNP leader hoped the Khaleej Times would publish the rejoinder with due importance as well as an apology for the damage done by publishing the false and baseless allegation.