Where do they get money?

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday expressed wonder at the militants getting money and arms and being patronised as many students were choosing the wrong path of militancy after going abroad for higher education.

“Now the question is who are providing them [militants] with arms, who are giving money and who are encouraging them? Students are taking the path of militancy after going to many developed countries,” she said.

The PM was addressing a programme at her office, marking the distribution of Bangladesh University Grants Commission's (UGC) gold medals among the winner students of 2013 and 2014.

Hasina said such incidents were taking place in some local educational institutions as well.

She called upon the vice-chancellors and teachers, present at the programme, to keep a close watch on their students' activities, where they go and why they remain absent in classes for a long time.

The PM said Islam is a religion of peace and it never allows killing any innocent person.

Criticising the trend of being suicide attackers, Hasina said committing suicide is a great sin and it is not possible to mix the great sin (suicide) with the great religion. “The people of Bangladesh are pious, not fanatics.”

People of every religion will perform their rituals peacefully and independently in Bangladesh as it was built with a non-communal spirit, she told the function.

Terming drug addiction a social menace, she stressed the need for recovering children from drug addiction. The guardians and teachers have to take greater responsibility in this regard, the PM added.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid also spoke at the programme.