Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said those who patronised militancy in the country by supplying money and giving directions, protected war criminals and burned innocent people with petrol bombs must face trial.
About the civil law suits against BNP-Jamaat leaders, she said, “these are not political cases.
These are cases of burning people”,
she said speaking at a meeting of leaders and workers of greater Washington chapter of Awami League at Ritz Carlton hotel in Washington Wednesday afternoon.
The prime minister’s Office in Dhaka yesterday quoted Sheikh Hasina as saying that the persons who are guilty must be punished.
Those who nurtured offenders, made war criminals ministers should also face trial, she said amid slogans of hundreds of party followers in support of the trial.
She also ridiculed the BNP leadership for relying on foreigners and giving complaints frequently without any substance about country’s politics and said they have no confidence in the strength of the people.
Prime Mminister Sheikh Hasina, who turned 70 yesterday and observed her birthday without any ceremony and said she learnt sacrifice in her childhood from her late parents.
Members of her family never celebrated their birthdays in a ostentatious fashion — when the people of Bangladesh were struggling for food and shelter.
She also offered her condolences for the sad demise of eminent poet Syed Shamnsul Haq whom she visited at hospital in Dhaka before coming to New York.
“I don’t like to cut cake to celebrate my birthday...My only motto is to complete the unfinished task of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to bring prosperity to the downtrodden and exploited masses,” she said.
She also recounted the sacrifices her mother made in absence of Bangabandhu in organising the Awami League, facing cases filed by the Pakistani regime and steering the movement for independence.
The prime minister also recalled how the father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman reconstructed the war – ravaged Bangladesh and rebuilt the economy in the post-independence era and steered Bangladesh towards recognition by the Organisation of Islamic Conference and Commonwealth countries.
She said Bangabandhu had initiated the demarcation process of lands and enclaves between Bangladesh and India by signing the Mujib-Indira Agreement and settlement of maritime boundary with Myanmar and India.
Moreover, it was Bangabandhu who bought gas fields after the independence from the then Shell Oil Company as a far sighted step to build Bangladesh’s future.
Bangabandhu laid the foundation of infrastructure and framed the constitution in just three and half years of his government. “Had he been alive Bangladesh could have set an example to the world,” she said.
She recalled the assassination of Bangabandhu and her family members on August 15, 1975 and said she had led the life of a refugee for nearly six years abroad.
She said, after returning to Bangladesh in 1981 as the president of Awami League, the ordeal did not end as she had to face various obstacles created by the military junta of general Ziaur Rahman as well as internal strife within her own party.
“Always Awami League leaders and workers stood beside me in my difficult times.
Big leaders make mistake but grassroots workers do not,” she said amid cheers from her followers.
Referring to the capture of power illegally and formation of BNP by general Zia, she said Zia violated army rules and the constitution.
The party that was formed illegally cannot do well for the people, she said and alleged that Zia’s son (Tareque) laundered money which was proved by an FBI investigation.
She said the Zia, Khaleda and Ershad regimes were the weakest governments and those regimes never ever dared to raise the issue of implementing the Land Boundary Agreement with India or to resolve the maritime boundaries with India and Myanmar.
“They were only busy with making their own fortunes,” she said, adding their policy was to make beggar the nation and economically cripple it.
She said her government resolved the exchange of enclaves after 68 years with India and demarcated maritime boundaries with two neighbours — India and Myanmar peacefully.
She spoke of how her government attained self-sufficiency in food, resolved the nagging power crisis, created community clinics and moved forward with digitalisation.
She also narrated the story of her challenge to the World Bank about its allegation of corruption in the Padma Bridge project, saying that the bank failed to show any evidence of corruption and her government started construction of the bridge using its own funds.
“Whenever I faced difficulties I got the support of the people for whom I’ve dedicated everything,” she said.
She advised the expatriates to remain careful against the backdrop of violent extremism that had claimed the lives of Bangladeshis in the USA. “The killing of Bangladeshi expatriates here is not acceptable....terrorism is everywhere, so remain careful,” she said.
l A Dhaka court yesterday issued warrants for the arrest of three people, including Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman, in a sedition case filed in 2015.
Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Sarafuzzaman Ansari issued the arrest warrants after taking cognisance of the chargesheet submitted against four accused in the case, including BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique and ETV chairman Abdus Salam.
On September 6, Detective Branch (DB) inspector Imdadul Haque, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the chargesheet before the Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate’s court accusing the four.
The two other accused in the case are Mahathir Farooki Khan, the then chief reporter of ETV and Kanak Sarwar, the then special correspondent of the private TV channel.
Tarique, Mahathir Farooki Khan and Kanak Sarwar were shown as fugitives in the chargesheet while Abdus Salam is now in jail.
The court also directed the officer-in-charge of Tejgaon Police Station to submit a report over the arrest information of the trio on November 1.
On January 8, 2015, the sedition case was filed with Tejgaon Police Station over the live telecast of a provocative speech by Tarique Rahman at a programme in London on January 5.
According to the case statement, Tarique instigated his party men by delivering ‘provocative’ speeches against law enforcers which led to anarchy in the country at that time. Salam committed the same offence by broadcasting Tarique’s speech.
Salam, who was arrested on January 6, 2015, in a statement before a magistrate confessed to sedition charges brought against him.
Tarique has been in London since September 11, 2008 on medical grounds after securing parole in various cases.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
