Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina on Sunday asked senior military officials to stay alert so that junior officers do not fall prey to any propaganda.
“At times some quarters try to confuse the members of the armed forces by spreading baseless information for their vested interests,” the Prime Minister told a conference of Generals at Officers’ Mess in Dhaka Cantonment.
“You should keep a watch that they (juniors) do not fall prey to such propaganda.”
At the Generals’ Conference, she stressed the need for maintaining the chain of command in the military. “Senior Officers should (also) portray themselves as symbol of morality, honesty and dutifulness.”
“You (senior officers) have to gain their (junior officers’) respect and loyalty,” she added.
She said senior officers should keep an eye on what the juniors need, want and their feelings.
PM’s Security and Defence Advisor Tarique Ahmed Siddique and Army Chief Gen Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan welcomed the Prime Minister upon her arrival.
Sheikh Hasina expressed hope that the army would resist any “anti-constitutional or anti-democratic activities” with the best of their abilities. “Keep up the highest alert so that nobody can assume power riding on the back of the army.”
“Democracy has been established in Bangladesh through sacrifice, struggle and condonation,” she said.
Regarding war crimes trials, the PM said “We have been able to bring war criminals to face justice overcoming many obstacles… It was never easy.”
She also urged to be alert against what she said ‘sedition plots’ and attempts to create chaos daily to stop war crimes trials.
She highlighted the government’s stern stance against corruption in her speech.
The Prime Minister also mentioned steps to be taken in future for a more developed, enlarged and modern army.
She said the pay-scale of the Captains and equivalent-level officials will be upgraded to the sixth grade from the incumbent seventh. An army housing programme with part of the money from the army has been approved and is in process of implementation, she added. New projects and expansion of DOHS have been taken up for army officers.
Similar projects for JCO and other ranks will be in place, and soon 367 plots will be handed over to the officers within a few days, she said.
Regarding the recent $ 1 billion arms purchase from Russia, the PM said it would contribute for a more adept army in future.
The Prime Minister said after her government assumed office in January 2009, it took all possible realistic steps for the development of Bangladesh Army. Reforms and restructuring at different stages of the army would also continue in the future, she said.
“These initiatives will boost the combat power and the mobility of the Bangladesh Army,” she added.
The Prime Minister said that steps had been taken to modernise the training system to make Bangladesh Army as a three-dimensional force.
Considering the limitation of training areas, Hasina said that she had ordered the Ministry of Land to allocate 9,000 acres of land of Char Kering to the army.
The Prime Minister thanked the army for constructing two bridges in Thanchi and Ruma upazilas in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and completing the Banani overpass and Hatirjheel-Begunbari integrated project in the capital. “I hope that we would see your involvement to a great extent in the national development activities in the future.”
Hasina paid rich tributes to the 57 senior army officers who were killed in a bloody BDR munity at the paramilitary force’s Peelkhana headquarters on Feb 25-26, 2009.
“The confidence of the people in the army on the question of integrity has increased further as the trial of the killings at Peelkhana is being held within the existing law,” she said.
“By not going for any step that is imprudent, the army had showed its unprecedented patience on that day.”
Referring to the different initiatives taken by the country’s founding President Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for development of the army after the independence, Hasina said that Bangabandhu had established different important institutions including Bangladeshi Military Academy and Combined Armed School within a short time despite limitations. “He had procured modern war weapons from abroad.”
Elaborating various initiatives of the present government to modernise and develop the Bangladesh Army, Hasina mentioned that her government has already procured self propelled guns, state-of-the-art ammunition plant, fourth generation tanks MBT-2000, weapon locating Rader, armed personnel carrier, armoured recovery vehicles and helicopters for the army.
She said these initiatives would help members of the Bangladesh Army carry out their responsibilities with more professionalism and efficiency at the UN Mission alongside increasing the strength of the forces.
She said that work on the draft National Defence Policy and the Army Forces Goal-2030 are on to maintain the continuity of development of the Bangladesh Army.
The Prime Minister said a real estate master plan has been finalized in the light of the forces goal 2030 for modernisation. As part of it, she said, a proposal for handing over 920.78 acres and 657 acres of land to the army for setting up of cantonments at Salutikor of Sylhet and Ramu of Cox’s Bazar was under process in the Ministry of Defence.
She said to solve the housing problems of the members of Bangladesh Army, the government was implementing 97 projects by readjusting Tk 3.63 billion in the current fiscal year. With the implementation of these projects by 2015, she hoped that the housing problems in the cantonments would be reduced to a great extent.
Sheikh Hasina said the role of Bangladesh Army was always praised in the UN Peacekeeping Missions.
The Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Shaikh Wahiduzzaman, Defence Secretary Khondoker Mohammad Asaduzzaman, Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad and senior army officials were present on the occasion.bdnews24.com
