Fatikchhari – Urging people not to be confused by the opposition’s propaganda, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday called upon them to vote for her party in the next general election to maintain peace and pace of development and eradicate terrorism and corruption from the country.
“I call upon you all to rally round under the flag of Awami League and elect our candidate casting votes for ‘boat’ in the next election if you want peace and development and eradicate militancy, terrorism and corruption from the country,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League President, said this while addressing a mammoth public rally at C&B Ground in Fatikchhari in the afternoon. Fatikkchhari Upazila Awami League arranged the rally.
Held with Upazila AL President Alhaj Aftabuddin Chowdhury in the chair, the rally was addressed, among others, by AL Presidium Member Engineer Mosharraf Hossain, Food Minister Dr M Abdur Razzak, Environment and Forests Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud, AL Advisory Council Member Ishaq Mia, Jatiya Party MP Anisul Islam Mahmud, JSD MP Moinuddin Khan Badal, Chittagong City AL President ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, Chittagong South AL President Moslem Uddin and General Secretary Mofizur Rahman, Chittagong North AL General Secretary MA Salam, AL leaders ATM Pearul Islam and Debashish Palit.
Calling upon the local people to give her party another chance to serve the nation, Hasina also requested the gathering to pledge to vote for AL and the people responded positively raising their hands.
Referring to the BNP’s demand that the opposition leader’s sons did not siphon off money abroad, she suggested the BNP not to misguide the countrymen.
“We’ve brought back money from Singapore, which was laundered by one of the sons of the opposition leader, but now they’re saying that it’s a drama. But, who does stage drama? AL always returned people’s property to them. I want to ask BNP not to misguide the countrymen,” she said.
In this connection, the premier said apart from returning money from Singapore, an FBI man also made deposition against another son of Khaleda Zia for laundering money abroad.
“When FBI gave their deposition against her (Khaleda’s) son, then how could this be a drama? Telling lies is their (opposition) character and they can tell only lies. I’ll call upon the countrymen not to be misguided with such falsehood,” she added.
Hasina also alleged that BNP only assumed office to resort to corruption, looting and to launder public money assets abroad. In this regard, she mentioned that the opposition leader, when in power, smuggled out 150 suitcases to Saudi Arabia with valuables.
Noting that her government has ensured the constitutional rights of the common people, she reiterated that the next election would be held as per the charter and the country’s people would be able to cast their votes freely.
The Prime Minister claimed that over some 5,600 elections at different tiers were held in the country in the last four and a half years and not a single allegation was raised against any of them as those were held in a free, fair and credible manner.
Recalling that she had lost 18 of her family members, including Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, on August 15, 1975, emotion-choked Hasina expressed her firm resolve to build a hunger- and poverty-free prosperous Bangladesh by 2021, and thus reach the benefits of independence to the doorsteps of the common people.
Alleging that the opposition leader is hatching various plots to save the war criminals, the Prime Minister again expressed her strong commitment of holding the trial of the war criminals one after another on the soil of Bangladesh and urged the countrymen to be united to this end.
Referring to the BNP chairperson’s 48-hour ultimatum to oust the government which was followed by Hefajat-e-Islam’s Dhaka siege programme on May 5, Hasina said, “I want to ask the opposition leader, how could they (Hefajat-Jamaat-Shibir) serve Islam burning holy Quran, setting fire to the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque?”
“Burning the copies of Quran by doing politics in the name of safeguarding Islam is what kind of protection?” she said adding, “Those who also tell lies in mosques do not serve the Islam. AL always works for spreading Islam, but now they are conducting propaganda against AL.”
Mentioning that the source of all powers is the Almighty Allah, Hasina said, “We do politics to ensure the welfare for the country’s people.”
Highlighting various successes of the government in the fields of education, health, food security, social safety nets, communications, power and energy, the Prime Minister also alleged that two virtues of the BNP-Jamaat-Shibir are ‘corruption and killing people’, and they do not know any other thing as they had created a reign of terror across the country during their tenure.
Meanwhile, just before getting on the public rally stage, the Prime Minister met the family members of three victims who were killed by Jamaat-Shibir activists at Bhujpur of Fatickchhari on April 11 during a peaceful procession of AL men.
Earlier from the public rally venue, Hasina inaugurated a food godown of 85,000 metric tons of capacity at Halishahar, CSD, seven-storey external department building, newly-built five-storey dental building and new administrative building at Chittagong Medical College Hospital, an upgraded 50-bed Chandanaish upazila health complex, another upgraded 50-bed Satkania upazila health complex, Lohagara upazila trauma center and different development projects under the Chittagong Development Authority (CDA).
The Prime Minister also laid the foundation stones of Chittagong Outer Ring Road, seven-storey female students’ hostel at Chittagong Medical College as well as lay foundation stones of various projects to be implemented by CDA. – UNB
