Hasina asks Awami League to keep 'infiltrators' out

Sheikh Hasina has asked Awami League leaders not to let people with affiliation to military dictators or wartime collaborators infiltrate the party, which embodies the spirit of the Liberation War.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 30 August 2020, 01:06 PM
Updated : 30 August 2020, 01:06 PM

The ruling party president made the call on Sunday while addressing a seminar arranged by its Dhaka metropolitan units marking the National Mourning Day which was commemorated on Aug 15.

“When a party is in power for a long time, people from different platforms infiltrate it and commit many misdeeds in its name. The party is then left to carry the burden of their misdeeds," the prime minister said.

“That’s why I alerted our leaders and activists that those people from the parties of military dictators should never infiltrate into our party. They damage the party when they become a part of it. They kill our leaders and activists which is then blamed on an ‘internal feud’.”

The Awami League is the ‘only’ party which is organised down to the grass roots, according to the prime minister. But she believes the party can grow further drawing strength from its ideology.

Hasina highlighted the lifelong struggle of her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to guarantee the rights of the oppressed.

She also recalled the gruesome killing of Bangabandhu and his family in 1975.

“When the Father of the Nation worked hard and drove the nation towards development, a group of people kept criticising him. They would say nothing had happened and that there was no development. Then they began to spread rumours. Why? What was the reason and what was the result?” she said.

“Many people talk about democracy. Those people who issued a Martial Law Ordinance and amended the constitution in order to grab the power -- how can they establish democracy? Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad did exactly the same thing that (Pakistani rulers) Ayub Khan and Yahia Khan had done. Democracy existed only on paper but what was the reality?”

After grabbing power, BNP founder Ziaur Rahman ‘brutally killed many leaders and activists of Awami League', Hasina noted.

“Multiple coups took place in the military during that time. Thousands of army personnel, who were freedom fighters, were killed, the four national leaders were killed in jail. In those days, eight to 10 people were hanged in the central jail every day. Their screams would fill the air inside the jail.”

Zia established a reign of terror while rewarding the killers of Bangabandhu by posting them in different embassies around the world, said the Awami League chief.

“Many of the intellectuals and knowledgeable people in our country look for democracy. They get the taste of democracy when an emergency is declared or a military dictator is in power, but not in a real democratic situation,” the prime minister quipped.

Only a democratic government can ensure the basic needs of the people and change their fate by ensuring education and health care for them, Hasina added.

The prime minister thanked the leaders and activists of the Awami League and its associate organisations for standing beside the people during the coronavirus epidemic.