Uphold spirit of Liberation War
Bangladesh and India yesterday called for upholding the spirit of the 1971 Liberation War to take the bilateral ties to newer heights and combat the menace of terrorism and religious extremism.
The spirit and values of the Liberation War were essential for continuing Bangladesh's journey along the path of non-communalism, said Bangladesh's visiting Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq.
The previous government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina embarked on that path after assuming power in 2009, he said while addressing a seminar on “Indo-Bangladesh Multi-Sectoral Cooperation”.
He said during the three decades of Ziaur Rahman-HM Ershad-Khaleda Zia rule, efforts had been made to take Bangladesh back to communal politics by resorting to anti-India tirade.
“Begum Zia had carried out a campaign misguiding the people that if they vote for Awami League, Bangladesh will become a part of India and Islam will be threatened, much like the West Pakistani rulers had done after the 1947 partition,” Huq said.
However, Hasina changed that and brought Bangladesh back on the path of non-communalism, he added.
He said the main reason why terrorism has become a major threat to South Asia was that the terrorists were trying to resort to communalism to whip up an atmosphere of hatred and divide the society. The terror attack on Holey Artisan restaurant in Dhaka in July last year was a clear example of that, according to Huq.
In his speech, India's Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar said Bangladesh's birth as an independent country represented “liberation from a false idea that religion could be the basis of nationalism.”
Sripriya Ranganathan, joint secretary in Indian External Affairs Ministry, said an ambitious energy cooperation programme was on the cards between the two countries including a cross-border gas pipeline, proposed LPG facility in Chittagong and Liquified Petroleum Gas terminal in Kutubdia.
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