Tue, Oct 27th, 2009 3:50 pm BdST 

http://bdnews24.com/details.php?id=145703&cid=3 

Dhaka, Oct 27 (bdnews24.com)—The main opposition BNP has claimed the Awami League government has filed the money-laundering case against Tarique Rahman to smear him politically. 

BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain told reporters on Tuesday the government had been filing unfounded cases against the opposition leaders 'to divert their attention from the real issues'. 

The Anticorruption Commission on Monday filed the case charging BNP chief's elder son Tarique and his business partner Giasuddin Al Mamun with laundering Tk 20.4 crore (Tk 204 million) from Bangladesh by several routes to Singapore that violated the Money Laundering Act. 

Earlier he offered flowers at late president Ziaur Rahman's grave marking the 31st founding anniversary of Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal, the party's youth wing. 

"But repressive measures such as filing cases and launching assaults cannot dissolve people's reaction to issues. The recent case filed against Tarique is just another ploy to harass him." 

He refuted Monday's remarks by Awami League general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam on opposition leader Khaleda Zia's statement.

 "The opposition leader has not said anything against the constitution. It's the failed leaders of the incumbent government who are speaking contravening the constitution." 

"People talking about the failures of the government does not mean they're transgressing the constitution as Syed Ashraf said." 

On filing new cases against the opposition leaders, he said, "They are filing false cases when they are supposed to free us from the cases filed by the caretaker government. 

"People understand this very well. No one can bluff them by such ploys." 

He complained that the Awami League was rearranging fresh cases so that people did not take to the streets to demonstrate against the government.