Keep anti-liberation forces away from state power: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged on Tuesday all to remain alert so that the anti-liberation forces can never come to power, reports UNB.

"This independence was earned at the cost of the blood of tens of thousands of people. Those who want to foil our independence should never come to power," she said while addressing a discussion in the city's Krishibid Institution auditorium.

The prime minister further said, "The country shouldn't be of militancy, anti-liberation forces and war criminals...it should be built based on the ideology of freedom fighters."

Awami League arranged the discussion marking the 48th Independence and National Day.

The prime minister said it is internationally recognised that her family members are not involved in any corruption though Awami League is now in power. "Coming to power, BNP hired a special agency to level corruption charges against me, my sister (Sheikh Rehana), and my son and daughter. But it found nothing," she said, adding that BNP made Bangladesh the world champion in corruption for five times.

In an oblique reference to Nobel Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus, she said he had also made an attempt in the US to find if there was any corruption against her family members.

Without mentioning his name, Hasina said he stopped the World Bank's fund for the Padma Bridge project. "They tried to put corruption blame on us. I also threw a challenge and told them to prove it. But they couldn't prove it... the Canadian Federal Court dismissed all the allegations as false," she said.

AL senior leaders Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Syed Ashraful Islam, Engineer Mosharraf Hossain and Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, National University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Harun-or-Rashid and Sociology Professor at Dhaka University Dr Sadeka Halim, among others, spoke at the programme.