Law to protect Hasina, Rehana to be enacted

SSF, other forces to provide full-time security blanket
The government is going to enact soon a new law titled Father of the Nation’s Family Members’ Security Act, 2009 for ensuring security to the two daughters of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana.
The Home Ministry has already prepared a draft of the Act upon getting instruction from the Cabinet Division recently, sources in the ministry said yesterday.
The draft of the Act will be placed at the cabinet meeting, which is likely to be held tomorrow (Wednesday) for its approval, sources added.
A high official at the Home Ministry yesterday told The Independent that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana are now under death threat as the government has started the process for trial of the war criminals and curbing militancy in the country.
“The desperate killers have made a number of assassination attempts on Sheikh Hasina on different occasions during the last 12 years,” he said.
“Considering the reality, the Act of 2001 on Father of the Nation’s Family Members’ Security was enacted on June 21 in 2001, which provided special security arrangements for the family members of the Father of the Nation, Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana,” he said adding, “but the BNP-Jamaat alliance government unilaterally scrapped the Act as they assumed power in December 2001.”
He also said that the life of Sheikh Hasina is, indeed, very important to the nation. Similarly, the life of Sheikh Rehana and other family members of Bangabandhu are also important to the nation. As such, enactment of the Father of the Nation’s Family Members’ Security Act will be a right step at the right time now, the official added.
Sources said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana would get full-time security provided by the members of the Special Security Force (SSF) and other security personnel during their movement and also at their residences.
Residences will also be allotted to the daughters of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman following enactment of the proposed law.
Since Awami League’s landslide victory in the parliamentary election held on December 29 last year, Sheikh Hasina has been under security threat. Not only that, fresh threats came after the government expedited the move to try the war criminals, sources said.
Sheikh Hasina has survived several assassination attempts in the past. On August 21, 2004, she had a brush with death when a string of explosions rocked an opposition rally she addressed in Dhaka in which 24 people including Awami League leader Ivy Rahman were killed and some 300 injured. In 2000, 80 kg of RDX was found in the Gopalganj district, where Hasina’s helicopter was set to land for a political rally. She was the Prime Minister at that time.
In 1988, she came under intense police fire in Chittagong that claimed the life of more than two dozen people.
In August, 2007, a group of gunmen fired at her Dhanmondi residence.

Courtesy of The Independent