BNP won the 2001 elections by giving India an undertaking to sell gas to them, the prime minister claimed on Saturday. “The RAW agent here, he was always in Hawa Bhaban [BNP chairperson’s former political office] back then, as were the US embassy people,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said at an event in Dhaka on Saturday, reports BSS. She has said that former US president Jimmy Carter’s role in the August 2001 meeting between her and BNP chief Khaleda Zia was to broker this deal. “It was Khaleda Zia who gave a ‘muchleka’ (undertaking) of selling gas to India, and by doing so, they came to power,” Hasina said. Hasina, also the Awami League president, said she wanted the country’s resources to be used for the people first and that there should be a 50-year reserve before export was even considered.

Source: Dhaka Tribune March 11, 2017 12:27 UTC