Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sought votes for Awami League (AL) candidates in the upcoming general elections so that development activities can be continued while speaking at a public meeting held at ENA Park in Bagmara on Thursday. “If you vote for ‘Boat’ once again, we will finish the unfinished task and undertake more development programmes to build a hunger- and poverty-free Sonar Bangla by 2021,” she said.
Coming down hard on former BNP minister Barrister Aminul Haque, Sheikh Hasina alleged that he had invited Bangla Bhai to Bagmara and killed several hundred innocent people, including dozens of Awami League leaders, on the pretext of eliminating extremists. She mentioned that if the BNP-led government once again attained power, the reign of terror will be re-established. She alleged that whenever BNP is in power, there is extremism and terrorism, and whenever the Awami League is in power, there is peace and development.
She expressed her gratitude to the people of Bagmara for voting AL candidate Enamul Haque to power and thereby helping the government eliminate extremists from the region.
Sheikh Hasina described in detail the various development works of Awami League and said the AL was distributing free books and has brought 26,200 schools and nearly 100,000 teachers under the government, lowered fertiliser prices, reopened 15,500 community clinics, introduced allowances for widows and elderly people, decreased prices of mobile phones, increased per capita income to USD 1,044 and equipped schools with multimedia. In contrast, the BNP and its allies, Jamaat-Hefazat, do not want development, or that the people of the country would be educated. Rather, they are engaged in organising a destructive movement. She further mentioned that under the guise of protecting religion, BNP-Jamaat-Hefazat have burnt the Holy Quran and instead of offering fertilisers at cheap rates, they have killed 18 farmers.
The Prime Minister further said if the BNP-Jamaat-led government once comes to power, they will stop all facilities for the people which the AL government has started to provide as they do not have the mentality of furthering the welfare the people of the country.
She advised the students to study attentively and to develop the country as well as their families.
Thousands of people joined the rally carrying placards and festoons with the party symbol “boat” and photos of Sheikh Hasina.
Chaired by Enamul Haque, MP, the rally was attended by, among others, AL presidium member and former minister Mohammad Nasim, AL joint secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif, state minister for industries Omar Faruque Chowdhury, MP Meraj Uddin Mollah, MP Abdul Wadud Dara and former Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton.
Earlier this morning, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited the parade of the armed forces at Rajshahi Cantonment.
The Prime Minister there highly commended the Bangladesh Infantry Regiment (BIR), saying their work at home and abroad has brightened the image of the Bangladesh Army as well as of the nation.
She said BIR members were playing a praiseworthy role in ensuring the country’s security. Apart from this, in any national crisis they were standing beside the people and actively working with them to overcome such situations.
-With The Independent input
