Don't let anti-liberation forces come to power

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday urged all to remain alert so that the anti-liberation forces can never come to power.

“The country's independence was earned at the cost of blood of tens of thousands of people. Those who want to foil our independence should never come to power,” she told a discussion in the city's Krishibid Institution auditorium.

The Awami League organised the programme marking the 48th Independence and National Day.

Hasina said the country shouldn't be of militants, anti-liberation forces and war criminals. It should be built based on the ideals of freedom fighters, she added.

She said it has been internationally recognised that her family members are not involved in corruption although the AL is in power.

“Assuming power, the BNP hired a special agency to level corruption charges against me, my sister [Sheikh Rehana], my son and daughter. But it found nothing,” the premier said, adding that the BNP made Bangladesh world champion in corruption for five times.

In an oblique reference to Nobel Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus, she said he also made an attempt in the USA to find if any of her family members committed corruption.

Without mentioning his name, Hasina said he stopped the World Bank's financing for the Padma Bridge project. “They tried to put blame on us for corruption. I also threw down a challenge to them to prove it. But they couldn't prove it.... The Canadian Federal Court dismissed all the allegations as false.”

She criticised Khaleda Zia's family members, saying they indulged in corruption and laundering money after assuming office. “Laundering money by them was proved in courts in Canada and Singapore.”

About the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case, she said although a fund came for orphans in 1991, it was embezzled without giving a single penny to them.

The PM said a court meted out punishment to the BNP chief and the government had nothing to do with that. “Had we had any intention to arrest her [Khaleda], we could have done it when the fire-terrorism was unleashed.”

Hasina said they want to work not for their personal gains, but for making the country's people wealthy and improving their lifestyle. “We want to work so that no one remains homeless and hungry and nobody dies without treatment.”

The premier said the government has a plan to launch Bangabandhu-II and Bangabandhu-III satellites into the orbit in future. “We are launching a satellite now. The longevity of Bangabandhu-I satellite will be 15 years.”

Senior AL leaders Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Syed Ashraful Islam, Mosharraf Hossain and Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, National University Vice-Chancellor Prof Harun-or-Rashid and Prof Sadeka Halim of Dhaka University, among others, spoke at the programme.