"This false statement proves that she has failed to run the government and taken a recourse to political deceit and dishonesty to shift the liability of her failure and incompetence on others," said AL acting president Zillur Rahman and acting general secretary Obaidul Kader in a joint statement yesterday.

They alleged that Khaleda has turned Bangladesh into a "death-valley" after assuming the office through a "vote rigging."

They said a government minister himself admitted in parliament that more than 9,000 people had so far been killed.

The AL leaders observed that the grim incidents like August 21 grenade attack on Sheikh Hasina's rally, bomb blasts in Sylhet injuring the British High Commissioner and "rise of communalism" had tarnished the image of the country abroad.

Zillur Rahman and Obaidul Kader said the killings in custody and the government's arguments in favour of extra-judicial killing proved that the alliance rulers had no faith in the rule of law.

They said international human rights organisations have "branded Bangladesh as a country of human rights violation" because of the "politics of killing" pursued by the government.