Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee
The prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday directed the home ministry to work out a plan, taking a tough stance to thwart any type of violence and terrorism in the country and stressed the need for forming a South Asian taskforce to tackle militancy.
She also sought international and regional assistance to curb militancy and called on all to be aware about militancy and terrorism, so that there can be no social instability under any circumstances.
The prime minister came up with the directives at the regular meeting of her cabinet held on Monday, her press secretary Abul Kalam Azad said at a briefing after the two and half an hour meeting which started at 11:00am.
‘International and regional assistance is needed to curb militancy. As it is not possible by a single country, united efforts are essential to solve the problem,’ Hasina was quoted by Azad as saying.
Meeting sources said Hasina asked the home ministry to submit a transparent report on the August 17,2005 serial bombings, after reopening the investigations.
‘You have to set off transparency and accountability through the report as our main goal is to establish accountability and transparency,’ a state minister told New Age quoting Hasina as saying.
At the meeting, the home ministry submitted a report on the countrywide serial bombings.But the ministry was asked to submit a detailed report at the next cabinet meeting, pointing out the source of funding for the attacks, meeting sources said.
The cabinet also asked the home ministry to submit an elaborate investigative report on the August 17, 2005 countrywide serial bombings, mentioning the origin of the bombs and the perpetrators and masterminds of it, sources said.
On the day in 2005, some 400 bombs went off, almost simultaneously in 63 of the 64 districts in the country, killing at least two persons and injuring more than 150 others. A banned Islamist militant group was involved the heinous attacks.
The meeting endorsed the President Iajuddin Ahmed’s speech to be delivered at the first sitting of the ninth parliament on January 25.
‘The president’s speech was placed at the meeting and the cabinet members after a long discussion approved it. We have brought some changes in the speech which will be delivered by the president at the first session of the ninth parliament,’ textile and jute minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui told New Age.
About ratification of the ordinances promulgated by the president during the immediate-past military-controlled interim government, Azad said the prime minister told the meeting that the ordinances would have to be disposed of within a month.
‘She already had consulted senior lawyers in this regard,’ He added.
Azad said the prime minister has already completed her preparation to form the parliamentary standing committees.
Responding to a query about the internal conflict in Chhattra League, the associated student organisation of the ruling Awami League, Azad said quoting Hasina that the government would not tolerate the violence in educational institutions. She ordered the law enforcing agencies to take action against troublemakers on the campuses to control the law and order situation,Azad added.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
