The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, said on Thursday that her government was pledge-bound to complete the war crimes trials despite deep conspiracies to foil the process.
Addressing a large public meeting at the Khulna Circuit House maidan in the afternoon, she said the government had also taken all possible steps to bring back the fugitive killers of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibar Rahman and the four national leaders to execute the court verdicts.
Khulna district and city Awami League jointly organised the public meeting
presided over by city mayor Talukder Abdul Khaleque.
Communications minister Obaidul Kader, Health minister AFM Ruhul Huq, central Awami League leaders Mohammad Nasim, Mahbubul Alam Hanif, lawmakers Sheikh Sohrab Ali Sana, Nani Gopal Mandal, Mozammel Hossain and Sheikh Helaluddin, among others, also addressed the meeting.
Soon after her arrival in Khulna, the prime minister commissioned the first locally-built warship, BNS Padma, at Khulna Shipyard which constructed it.
Referring to the International Crimes Tribunal’s maiden verdict in the trials of war criminals, Sheikh Hasina said that her government had made history by holding the trials of those who had committed crimes against humanity 1971.
She said her government had completed many projects for development of the south-western region and the country as well.
‘We have reopened all mills and factories which were shut down by the government of BNP-led four-party alliance,’ she said.
Besides, peace has returned to the south-western region, which turned into a ‘valley of death’ due to rise of terrorism during the rule of BNP, as the present government successfully contained terrorism in the region, she said.
The prime minister said, ‘Khulna is now free of terrorists and Islamist militants and many development projects have been implemented here and works on the remaining ones are going on.’
Hasina said that Bangladesh had achieved tremendous success in increasing the foreign exchange reserves to 14 billion dollars which earlier hovered around five to six billion dollars.
‘We have attained self-sufficiency in food production which the BNP government could never achieve. It is Awami League which has been able to ensure food security and steady power supply in the country, she said.
The prime minister said that the previous BNP government was involved in unbridled corruption and plundered national wealth. Besides, Islamist militants raised their heads during the BNP’s rule.
Sheikh Hasina in her 33-minute speech said Bangladesh had achieved another success in settling the dispute with Myanmar over maritime boundary. She appealed to the people to vote for Awami League in the next general elections for continued peace and progress of the country.