August 03,2010

Awami League (AL) will resist the anti-government movement called by the main opposition BNP after Eid-ul-Fitr, Mahbubul Alam Hanif, acting general secretary of AL, has said. Earlier on August 24, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at a BNP-organised iftar party spoke of announcing an anti-government movement programme after the Eid to “free the countrymen from their sufferings”. According to Hanif, BNP called this movement to save the war criminals, and to cover up the “corruption and misdeeds” committed by Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman Koko -- the two sons of the BNP chief. "If BNP goes for movements, especially to protect war criminals and to cover up the corruptions and misdeeds of Tarique and Koko, Awami League men won't sit idle. We'll resist them," he said at a press conference at the party president's political office in Dhanmondi. Hanif, also said the graft charges against Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman are being investigated and they will soon be brought back to stand trial. "No corrupt person and looter of state wealth will be spared whether they stay home or abroad, or on parole or absconding.” He said Koko will be brought back home immediately after expiry of his parole, which the High Court has extended up to October 3. "Bring back those money that your two sons siphoned off to different countries including USA and Malaysia and deposit it to the state exchequer," Hanif called on the leader of the opposition. The AL leader also alleged the grenade attack on AL rally on August 21, 2004 was carried out in a planned way in an attempt to kill Sheikh Hasina under the direct supervision of Khaleda Zia, her elder son Tarique Rahman, nephew Saiful Islam Duke, political adviser Harris Chowdhury, former state ministers Lutfozzaman Babar and Abdus Salam Pintu and Saiful Islam Joarder, the dismissed army colonel. The AL leader vehemently protested the recent remark of BNP that late President Ziaur Rahman legalized the Awami League of doing free politics in the country and termed it as false and fabricated. "Rather Zia, himself was beneficiary after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,”, started the politics under the shadow of military force and commenced curfew-politics in the name of democracy, he observed.

September 02,2010

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has greeted Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia on the occasion of holy Eid-ul-Fitr. APS to the Prime Minister Saifuzzaman Shekhar and PM's Protocol Officer Proloy Kumar Joarder handed over the Eid card to the opposition leader’s APS Suratuzzaman at the Jatiya Sangsad Office on Thursday noon. 

PM Sheikh Hasina again warns BCL wrongdoers

September 01,2010

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday once again said her government is preparing a list of errant activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League to bring them to book. On July 16, Sheikh Hasina issued Chhatra League activists the same warning at a Awami League Central Working Committee meeting. The premier was yesterday speaking at a discussion organised by BCL at the capital's Bangabandhu International Conference Centre marking the August 15. "We are collecting information and preparing a list of Chhatra Shibir and Chhatra Dal activists who infiltrated into BCL and are committing violence in public universities and colleges," said Sheikh Hasina, also the ruling Awami League president. She said some BCL leaders gave shelter to Shibir and Chhatra Dal activists over factional feuds in the BCL. These feuds must stop. "Refrain from any sort of criminal activities, otherwise you [BCL activists] will be arrested and brought to book," Sheikh Hasina said, adding, "There are some people who claim to belong to the ruling party and do wrong things. You must be careful about them." She also asked BCL leadership to immediately expel the troublemakers. The AL chief directed BCL activists to work with devotion and patriotism to revive the lost glory of student politics and build a prosperous digital Bangladesh. She urged Chhatra League activists to concentrate in studies. "You must be educated and qualified, as an illiterate leader cannot contribute much in developing a nation. Reminiscing the glorious days of student politics and people's respect for student leaders, she said it is unfortunate for the government that military dictators have destroyed student politics. She said, "General Ayub Khan, Ziaur Rahman and Ershad destroyed the student politics giving arms and money to students. Among them, Ziaur Rahman spoiled the overall ethics of politics for which many politicians now get involved in politics to earn money." The defeated forces of the 1971 Liberation War killed the Father of the Nation and destroyed the constitution and democracy, she continued. Sheikh Hasina also thanked the Dhaka University vice chancellor for cancelling Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's expulsion in 1950 from the university.

Awami League govt is working for the welfare of people

August 31,2010

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said President Ziaur Rahman had rewarded Bangabandhu's killers while Khaleda Zia rehabilitated them in the country's political arena when they were in power. "It was President Zia who rewarded the killers first by providing them various diplomatic assignments and later her wife Khaleda Zia rehabilitated them in politics by facilitating their participation in the February 15 farcical polls," she added. The Awami League President said this while addressing a memorial meeting marking the National Mourning Day on August 15 organised by City Awami League at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) yesterday afternoon. Coming down heavily on BNP for jeopardizing democracy and economic activities during its last 2001-2006 tenure, she said the BNP-Jamaat alliance destroyed all development sectors through unleashing unbridled corruption and patronizing militancy and terrorism across the country. She said the BNP-Jamaat four-party alliance created the most infamous terrorist 'Bangla Bhai' and patronized militancy when it unleashed a reign of terror across the country. Referring to celebration of former prime minister Khaleda Zia's "false" birthday on August 15, the day coinciding with the National Mourning Day, Sheikh Hasina posed a question how a sensitive person can celebrate her birthday on that day when the entire nation plunges into grief. "How she celebrates her birthday on August 15 when we observe the National Mourning Day although it was a false birthday of the Leader of the Opposition," she said, adding that according to official records, Khaleda Zia has four birthdays. Sheikh Hasina said according to Khaleda Zia's marriage registration, SSC certificates, biodata provided after becoming Prime Minister and passport records, the Leader of the opposition has four birthdays. But no record showed that she had another birthday on August 15, she said describing it as fake. About widespread corruption allegations against Khaleda Zia's two sons Tareque Rahman and Arafat Rahman, she said the US Federal Court has filed a bribery case against the two "able" sons of the Leader of the Opposition. However, she said another money-laundering case was filed against the son of Golam Azam, former amir of Jamaat-e-Islami, a key political ally of BNP, in a court in London.

August 30,2010

Awami League President & Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is one of the top 10 female leaders in the world. The list has been published by The Time magazine in its “Time Special” segment and AL President and incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is 6th in position among top 10 female leaders in the world currently. In the list, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard — the nation's first female PM holds the top position followed by Johanna Sigurdardottir, Prime Minister of Iceland. The report stated that Sheikh Hasina, the 62-year-old leader of the left-of-center Awami League, has a history of surviving. During a 1975 coup d'état, assassins killed 17 members of her family — including her three brothers, mother , relatives and father, former Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Sheikh Hasina, then 28, happened to be abroad at the time. She later survived a grenade attack that killed more than 24 people, dodging the bullets that sprayed her car as she fled. Sheikh Hasina was first elected Prime Minister in 1996. But in 2001Sheikh Hasina was ousted in a landslide. That wasn't the end of her, though. In January 2009, the Awami League won 230 of 300 parliamentary seats, and the consummate survivor found herself Prime Minister — again.