Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina yesterday said if voted to power she would take an initiative to form an antiterrorism taskforce in South Asia to fight terrorism.
“If voted to power, I’ll propose to other South Asian countries to jointly form a South Asian Taskforce to root out terrorism and establish peace in the region,” Hasina told a faction of Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ) leaders when they met her at her office.
She said Islam is a religion of peace and there is no room for terrorism in Islam. Those who are tainting Bangladesh and other Muslim countries by committing terrorist activities in the name of Islam must be stopped, she added.
“Bangladesh must recover its identity as a secular democratic state,” she observed.
She added the Muslim world has to take steps to curb terrorism in the name of Islam.
The former premier, against who several plots were hatched mostly by Islamist militants, said she might be targeted again for making such comments. She said 19 such attempts to assassinate her have already been made but she is not scared.
Hasina also said if voted to power she would take steps to modernise both general and madrasa education system as proper education is needed to fight terrorism and remove unemployment problems.
She also pledged that her prime task as a premier would be to bring prices of essentials within the reach of the common people. She reiterated her pledge to ensure education, health, shelter and employment of the commoners.
About attacks on ‘Balaka’ sculpture and ‘Lalon’ sculptures by Islamist militants, Hasina said, “I don’t understand why those people desecrated a beautiful sculpture. Many Islamic countries have such sculptures.”
She also said while she was in jail, authorities had offered to punish any rivals within her party who had slighted her in the past.
Mentioning her life under detention, she said, “The authorities asked me to name anyone who had let us down in the past at any stage of our political careers. The authorities assured me that they would punish the offenders. I said Allah will take care of all injustices.”
“Upon their insistence on eliciting names of offenders, my neighbour gave names and they were arrested straightaway,” she said in an indirect reference to her political rival BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, who had been detained in another special jail at the same parliament complex.
IOJ Chairman Misbahur Rahman Chowdhury, Vice-chairman Nurul Islam Khan and Secretary General Muniruzzaman Rabbani and AL leaders Motia Chowdhury, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir were present.
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