PM condemns attack on Gaza hospital

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today denounced the attack on a hospital in Gaza that killed innocent people including children, reiterating her call to global leaders to stop the war and arms race for the wellbeing of mankind.

"We saw killing of people and children by bombing on a hospital [in Gaza ] and bloodstained faces of the children yesterday. I am urging the world leaders to stop the war and arms race," she said.

The prime minister was addressing a programme marking Sheikh Russel Day-2023, distribution of Sheikh Russel Padak-2023 and Smart Bangladesh Padak-2023 coinciding with the 60th birth anniversary of Sheikh Russel, the youngest son of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Sheikh Russel Jatiyo Shishu Kishore Parishad and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division jointly organised the programme at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC).

The prime minister said war and arms race never brought welfare for mankind, only destruction and that women and children are the worst sufferers of such conflicts.

"We want peace as it gives prosperity while war brings destruction. So, we don't want war; rather peace. We always work for establishing peace," she said.People and children are being killed both in the Palestine and Israel, the premier said.

Children are becoming orphans and parents are losing their children in the war, she said.

"We know their pain as we two sisters had become orphans in 1975," she said.

The prime minister said they had seen the dreadfulness of war for themselves during the War of Liberation in 1971.

"I had seen by my own eyes the bodies lying on different roads of Dhaka city," she said.

She said she and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana were in forced exile abroad six years.

"Spending time as refugees, without knowing when we could return to our country, was the most painful. So, we don't want war; rather peace," she said.