"The person who is holding the responsible post of the Prime Minister should not make such comments," BNP Acting Secretary-General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told reporters.
"This is her [Sheikh Hasina's] natural way of speaking. But this is not true that an international institution like the World Bank cancelled the loan agreement just because of Prof. Yunus'," he added.
Fakhrul was talking to reporters after paying respect and placing flowers at the graveyard of BNP founder and late President Ziaur Rahman at the capital's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar along with the leaders of the newly formed committee of the party's Shariatpur district unit.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday told the ruling party's central executive committee members that Muhammad Yunus may have 'influenced' the World Bank's decision to pull out from the proposed Padma bridge project.
This is the first time the Prime Minister dropped the broad hint even though leaders of her Awami League party have been blaming the former Grameen Bank Managing Director for the World Bank's cancellation of a $ 1.2 billion loan contract for the $ 2.9 billion project.
Criticising PM's remarks, Fakhrul on Tuesday said, "Nobel laureate Yunus is the pride of the country. He is a respected person. But the way the Prime Minister and other ministers are commenting about him is just unexpected."
He reiterated the allegation that top government officials were involved with 'corruption' in the Padma bridge project as raised by the WB. "That's why the World Bank cancelled the agreement."
"Now they have started collecting money for the project like a charitable fund just to divert people's attention from the graft issue," he said.
He said a gigantic project like this could not be executed this way. "I would like to tell the government – first, punish the corrupts, and then try to resolve the matter through dialogue with the World Bank."