Dhaka, Dec. 15 -- It was not Al-Badr and Al-Shams but people from "neighbouring country" who carried out the Dec 14 killings of intellectuals in 1971, a BNP leader in Narayanganj has claimed.

On Monday, Abu Al Eusuf Khan Tipu, member secretary of BNP's Narayanganj Metropolitan chapter, said history would be "distorted" if a particular party was held responsible for the killings.

Addressing the Jamaat-e-Islami, the BNP leader said: "I believe that Islamic parties, whom different leftist organisations and left-leaning journalists have historically targeted, are still being targeted in their discourse, and history marks you as perpetrators of the intellectual killings.

"Why do you not correct this? Why do you not make a clear statement? Y...