PM wants DGFI ready

The prime minister has asked the members of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) to remain alert to all sorts of threats to protect democracy.

Sheikh Hasina was addressing a 'Darbar' of the officials and staff of the military’s intelligence wing at its headquarters at Dhaka Cantonment on Wednesday.

"It is unfortunate that the DGFI was rampantly used as a political weapon in the past. But we don't want to use it politically.

“We want the organisation to be built as a national institution by upholding its reputation," she said.

Hasina said her government did not want to use DGFI politically, rather it wanted to uphold the reputation of the organisation as a disciplined institution.

The prime minister said her government was developing DGFI so that people's confidence and trust remained intact in the force.

She said an era of unconstitutional capture of state power began after the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rhman in 1975.

“And the DGFI was used rampantly for grabbing state power illegally.”

She said before her party assumed office in 1996, DGFI was used politically and the BNP-Jamaat alliance government that came to power in 2001 used the DGFI as a political weapon to cling to power.

Hasina said she believed that the members of the DGFI would work with integrity to accomplish their jobs.

She took questions from the intelligence members at the Darbar.

Later, the prime minister unveiled DGFI’s new monogram.

DGFI Director General Maj Gen Akbar Hossain handed her a crest bearing the new monogram.

Listing various measures of her government for the welfare of the civil and military members of the force, Hasina announced 30 percent special allowance for the members of DGFI which would be implemented from May.