Dhaka – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday said the debt of Bangabandhu’s blood will have to be repaid through materialising his dream to build a poverty– and hunger-free ‘Golden Bangladesh’.“The Father of the Nation gave away his blood for this country. We have to repay the debt of his blood through fulfilling his dream. His dream was to build a hunger –and- poverty-free Golden Bangladesh. We’ll build that Golden Bangladesh, this is our pledge,” she said.
The Prime Minister was addressing a programme organised by Awami League at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, marking the National Mourning Day and 44th martyrdom anniversary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
AL President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presided over the event.
She said although the Father of the Nation is no more, his ideal still remains here. “If you do politics upholding this ideal in heart, you’ll be able to gain people’s trust and confidence, and honour. You’ll be able to advance the country,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said people across the globe have now become astonished seeing the remarkable development of Bangladesh unleashed in the last 10 years. “A nation can go forward when those who sacrificed for the independence and do politics with principle and ideal remain in power,” she said, adding that when the associates of the defeated forces remain in power, that nation cannot move forward.
She said the August 15 massacre was not a brutal assassination of a family only, but also a conspiracy against the independence and Liberation War of the country. “The impatient attitude of a section of people caused great sufferings for Bangabandhu just after the Liberation War.”
“This section of people failed to realise the obstacles the then Awami League government faced to fulfill people’s expectations just after the independence of the country,” the Prime Minister said.
She also said this impatient attitude caused a great loss to the country and ultimately helped the anti-liberation forces and conspirators assume power. “Some political leaders at that time couldn’t realise that the conspiracy of the anti-liberation forces would continue after the independence of the country,” she said.
With an emotion-chocked voice, Sheikh Hasina briefly described the brutal assassination of her family members, saying she and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana escaped the brutal killing as they were abroad at that time.
She also said military dictator Ziaur Rahman did not allow her to return home for six years. “It was gradually established that the aim of the August 15 killing was to put the anti-liberation forces into the state power,” she said.
The Prime Minister said as Zia was very much trusted to killer Khandaker Mushtaque Ahmed, he was made the army chief just after the August 15 carnage.
Turning to development unleashed in the last 10 years, she said the country achieved higher growth, kept the inflation under control, increased the per capital income and reduced the poverty rate. “There’s no scarcity of food in the country. The government is working tirelessly to make the country free from hunger and poverty,” she said.
AL leaders Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Matia Chowdhury, Mohammad Nasim, Advocate Abdul Matin Khasru, Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Abdur Rahman, AFM Bahauddin Nasim and Advocate Azmat Ullah Khan also spoke at the programme.
At the outset of the meeting, a one-minute silence was observed in memory of Bangabandhu and other martyrs of the August 15 carnage.UNB
