Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday alleged that the ruling Awami League was distorting history and defaming BNP founder and late president Ziaur Rahman.

He made the comment while addressing a prize distribution ceremony at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office in Dhaka in the morning.

The prizes were distributed among the winners of an essay competition marking the 42nd death anniversary of Ziaur Rahman.

Terming prime minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina’s statement that Ziaur Rahman was involved in the August 15, 1975 incident as a ‘lie’, Fakhrul said that it was being said only to distort history.

These things were being said to divert the attention of the people from the ongoing one-point movement and to mislead the movement, the BNP leader said.

‘We cannot forget that Awami League leaders formed the government under the leadership of Khondaker Mushtaq when the body of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was lying on the steps of his house. Those who spread false propaganda today, say that Ziaur Rahman was involved in the August 15 incident, they have only one purpose, to defame him (Zia) and erase him completely from the history. But that is not possible,’ the BNP leader said.