Hasina hails countrymen on Free Democracy Day

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has greeted the countrymen on the ‘Free Democracy Day’ marking the fall of dictator HM Ershad's regime. In a message Sheikh Hasina promised to protect achievements of the protracted pro-democracy mass movement. She said since 1990 her party Awami League has been playing a responsible role in protecting democracy and people's right to vote. On this day (December 6, 1990) former military ruler Ershad's autocratic govt was ousted from the state power throigh a mass movement. Hasina said, ‘We have sealed off the usurpation of power by any one through the 15th amendment to the Constitution.’ The Prime Minister said, ‘We spearheaded a long campaign to restore democracy uprooting the autocratic regime to establish the people's fundamental rights and the country's people spontaneously took part in the movement and shed their blood.’ She said an extra-constitutional and illegal government was established after the killing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975. ‘In the days following the killing of Banbagandhu, the people's right to vote and democratic values were destroyed. A reign of terror was established after distorting the glorious history of the 1971 Liberation War,’ she said. ‘We struggled for a long time to establish the people's fundamental and voting rights as well as democracy. The people of the country took part in the movement spontaneously and many of them including Nur Hossain, Babul, Fattah and Dr Milon sacrificed their lives to liberate democracy from the grip of the autocrat,' according to a news agency.