Bangladesh News

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday pledged to ensure trial of all the major incidents of killing, including Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutiny.

“If I am alive, trail of the BDR mutiny will certainly be held,” Hasina said at a reception at Senakunja in Dhaka Cantonment in the evening on the occasion of the Armed Forces Day.

Terming the killings of army officers and dumping of their bodies together under the ground a brutal incident, the PM sought cooperation of all in holding the trial. “Don’t be misguided by any propaganda,” she told members of the armed forces.

Hasina, also president of the ruling Awami League (AL), vowed to hold trial of the assassination of four national leaders inside Dhaka Central Jail, war criminals, August 21 grenade attack killings and murder of party leaders Shah AMS Kibria and Ahsanullah Master.

“If we do not hold trial of these killing, the bloodbath in this land will continue,” said the PM, who is also in-charge of the Defence ministry.

On the Supreme Court judgement in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman assassination case on Thursday, the premier said she waited for it for 34 years.

“It has been proved through the judgment that any one committing crimes will get punished. It is a triumph of truth and justice,” she said. In the past, the killers of father of the nation were rewarded instead bringing them to book, she regretted.

Hasina referred to the previous tenure of AL government, and said they will continue their efforts to modernise the armed forces.

The PM mentioned that she asked the United Nations at the General Assembly session in September to take more peace-keeping troops from Bangladesh. “I also requested the UN to engage Bangladeshis in its official work,” she said.

Bangladesh is a peace-loving nation and wants to maintain good relations with all including its neighbouring nations, she said. “Despite this the country needs strong and modern armed forces to safeguard its sovereignty and independence.”

The PM hoped that the armed forces would also play a pivotal role in national development side by side with protecting and upholding sovereignty of the country.

The armed forces started its journey on November 21, 1971, she recalled, and paid rich tributes to their members who had embraced martyrdom for liberating the motherland