Hasina says Bangladeshis should not worry about sanctions, visa curbs

The prime minister vows to build a self-dependent Bangladesh

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 3 June 2023, 05:12 PM
Updated : 3 June 2023, 05:12 PM

Sheikh Hasina has resolved to build a self-reliant Bangladesh and asked the citizens not to worry about sanctions or visa restrictions clamped by foreign powers.

“It’s no use worrying about who will impose visa restrictions or sanctions on us,” the prime minister said at the inauguration of the newly built office of the Awami League’s Dhaka District unit in the Tejgaon industrial area on Saturday.

“It doesn’t matter if we don’t take a 20-hour plane journey to America by crossing the Atlantic. There are many other oceans and continents in the world.

“We’ll establish communication with them, befriend them; our economy will be stronger, vigorous and more developed,” the Awami League president continued.

She called for efforts to leave no arable land uncultivated in an effort to increase production so that a global shortage of food cannot affect Bangladesh.

“We’ll build our country without depending on someone else.”

Hasina criticised the BNP for violent protests during the 2014 elections. “A Canadian court declared the BNP a terrorist orgnisation. America did not grant [BNP acting chief Tarique Rahman] visa for terrorism and corruption. And they [BNP] are lobbying the Americans now.”

“We know well where the people’s welfare lies. We turned the country into a developing nation keeping that in mind. The nation will be a developed one by 2041.”

The Awami League chief alleged the BNP and its junior ally the Jamaat-e-Islami had rigged the vote and are conspiring again ahead of the next general election.

She said the BNP had described its founder Ziaur Rahman and his family as honest and poor, but when his wife Khaleda Zia came to power, the family made huge fortunes“like magic”.

“What did they give the people of Bangladesh?” Hasina asked.

“They laundered billions of taka out of the country. We recovered Tk 400 million. And now they, along with the Jamaat and war criminals, are conspiring against us abroad. But truth shall prevail.”

Hasina said the people rejected the BNP in the 2008 election for its “terrorism and corruption”, but the party continued to conspire to erase the Awami League from Bangladesh’s politics.

“But the Awami League has been built for the people. No one can destroy it. The country goes through development whenever the party comes to power,” she remarked.