She also castigated the opposition BNP for being hand in glove with the Chittagong-based Hifazat-e Islam, which took an anti-government stance over the movement by Shahbagh-based Ganajagaran Mancha seeking death penalty for those convicted of war crimes and a ban on Jamaat-e-Islam.



Hasina said this while addressing leaders of her party’s Pirojpur district unit at Ganabhaban on Thursday.



Hifazat, believed to be backed by Jamaat, has been branding the Mancha organisers 'atheists' since Feb 5, the day movement started.





Hifazat leaders have also repeatedly alleged that Hasina’s government ‘patronises atheism’.“I say prayers five times a day. I start my day with recitation of the Quran. But I am called an atheist, and believers are those who leave their beds after 12pm,” she said on Thursday.In an oblique reference to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, she added: “You’ve seen bottles when the house was shifted. They drink from those bottles, sleep until 12pm. They’re (called) theists and we’re (called) atheists. This is our misfortune”.On Nov 13, 2010, the Cantonment Board took possession of the house where Khaleda lived and was later forced out following a High Court verdict.The BNP lent support to several Hifazat programmes. Its leaders were seen joining a rally of the radical group in Dhaka’s Motijheel area recently.The Hifazat has been strongly criticising the government for the May 6 law enforcers’ drive to evict its activists from the city’s commercial hub where they were holding the rally.