Dhaka: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Wednesday alleged that her arch rival and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has started doing politics with religion to exploit Bangladesh' majority people's sentiment.

"Before her India tour, Sheikh Hasina had arranged a conference of Alem-Ulema to exploit the religious sentiment of Muslims, the country's majority people. Returning home, she yesterday (Tuesday) held another meeting with Alem-Ulema of the Hefajat-e-Islam-supported Qawmi madrasas," she said.

The BNP chief further said, "The country's people surely didn't forget her (Hasina's) attitude towards Alem-Ulema, and continuous attacks on religious values in the past. Now she herself started doing politics with religion."

Khaleda Zia came up with the allegation at a press conference at her Gulshan office, reports news agency UNB.

The news conference was arranged to brief the media on the country's latest political situation and the Prime Minister's recent India tour.

As part of her plan to do politics with the religion, Khaleda alleged that Hasina in the past signed a deal with the same religion-based Islamic party to introduce Islamic Sharia law.

She said the Prime Minister is deceiving the Islamic parties assuring that she will give recognition to Qawmi madrasas' certificates.

The BNP chief claimed her party, when it was in power, modernised madrasa education. "Our government gave recognition to Qawmi madrasas' certificates in 2006, and a gazette notification was also issued in this regard."

She alleged that there has been no progress in this regard since her government quit power due to the negative attitude towards Qawmi madrasas by the successive governments.

As her attention was drawn to Hefajat-e-Islam's demand for removal of the Greek idol from the Supreme Court premise, the BNP chief said, "It's the chief justice who has the jurisdiction to take decisions in this regard."

Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she did not like setting up the statue of Greek Goddess Themis on the Supreme Court premises.

"Why would the statue of Greek Themis be set up in Bangladesh? The Greeks had a certain type of costume, but here a statue has been built and it is wearing a sari. It's a funny incident. I don't know why such an incident happened," she said while addressing a meeting of the Alem-Ulema from Qawmi madrasas at Ganobhaban.