Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader has said the casino culture started from Hawa Bhaban — the BNP's powerhouse during its reign.
Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, made the statement while talking to journalists at Savar Cantonment Shooting Club point on Dhaka-Aricha highway on Wednesday.
“The BNP regime brought the culture of alcohol and gambling to Bangladesh,” he said.
He said everyone knows that casinos were born at Hawa Bhaban and the BNP government failed to take any steps regarding it.
“Sheikh Hasina did what Khaleda Zia could not,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Information Minister Hasan Mahmud termed BNP acting chief as the “casino emperor.”
“We saw that Tarique Rahman showed his earnings from casinos in his tax returns in London,” he said at National Press Club on Wednesday.
He echoed Quader’s comment that it was the BNP leaders who started the casino culture in Bangladesh and said BNP was complaining due to their failure.
Both the ministers’ comments came in response to BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir’s comments that the Awami League regime practices politics of robbery and turned Bangladesh into a country of gamblers.
The government has been carrying out countrywide anti-casino drives since September 18, and busted several casinos in Dhaka.
RAB arrested now-expelled Jubo League leader Khaled Mahmud Bhuiyan on charges of running a casino at the Young Men’s Club in Dhaka’s Fakirapool area from his Gulshan residence and seized a large cache of foreign currencies and illegal weapons.
The same day, RAB also raided the detained more than 140 people and seized huge quantity of alcohol, gambling equipment and Tk22.9 million.
Three cases have been opened against Khalid under the narcotics act, the Arms Act, and the Money Laundering Act.
On September 20, RAB arrested Jubo League leader Golam Kibria Shamim and seized Tk1.80 crore in cash, Tk165.27 crore worth of fixed deposit receipts (FDR), and alcohol and firearms, from Niketon in Dhaka's Gulshan area.
