Int'l pressure on to say 'ISIS is here'
Says PM, asks people to help ensure no militant can take shelter in Bangladesh, vows to complete war crimes trial
Staff Correspondent
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said some countries have been putting pressure on the government to make it say that global terror outfit Islamic State has presence in Bangladesh.
“Even, while talking to some ministers, those countries tried to convince them to say that IS has presence here,” Hasina told parliament, without mentioning any country.
The PM called upon the people to help ensure that no member of IS (also called ISIS) or any other militant body take shelter in the country.
“We want to keep Bangladesh peaceful. I urge the people to contact law enforcement agencies if they notice any militant activities in their areas,” she said in her winding-up speech in the concluding sitting of eighth session last night.
Citing the survey of a US organisation, she said Bangladesh is even safer than the United States.
Reiterating that the country will rise from low-middle income to a developed one by 2041, Hasina said none will be able to stop the nation's progress.
Also expressing her firm determination to complete the ongoing trial for the crimes against humanity, she said the country is gradually breaking a curse by trying war criminals.
"Bangladesh, I think, had been under a curse for a long time for not trying the war criminals. By holding the trials and executing the verdicts, the country is gradually getting rid of that curse," she said.
Hasina noted that the curse will never go away entirely if the trial of the war criminals is not completed.
Pointing to the recent execution of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mojaheed, she said families of those killed by the war criminals will have peace now.
Recalling the atrocities of 1971, she said that apart from killing innocents, the evil forces had handed mothers and sisters over to Pakistani occupation army. “And even infants were persecuted.”
The PM further said, "With this trial, those who are still living with grief over the loss of near and dear ones during the Liberation War will find solace knowing that justice is being done."
Lambasting late president Ziaur Rahman, his widow BNP Chief Khaleda Zia and Jatiya Party chief HM Ershad, Hasina said they had patronised, empowered and rehabilitated the anti-liberation elements as well as self-declared killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.