No compromise with terrorists

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said her government would not compromise with the perpetrators of recent terrorist and militant activities.

"We will resist the devils and Inshallah we will be able to restore peace again in the society," she said, adding that there would be no place for militants and terrorists in the country.

The PM made the remarks while addressing the 35th National Rally of Bangladesh Ansar and Village Defence Party (VDP) at Ansar-VDP Academy in Shafipur.

Hasina said the evil force had started killing people again the way they did before the January 5, 2014 election. In the name of politics, they were torching buses and trucks and burning people alive.

As many as 100 people fell victims to their cruelty. The air of Burn Unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital filled with the wail of people injured in petrol bomb attacks.

She said all the victims of petrol bomb attacks were innocent people. They were bus and truck drivers and marginal people. There is no value of the lives of toiling masses to Khaleda Zia.

The PM also said the BNP-Jamaat clique started their vandalism when Bangladesh was on the road of vibrant economic growth and the living condition of people was improving.

New opportunities are opening up abroad for Bangladesh's manpower market. After seven years, Saudi Arabia has started recruiting workers from Bangladesh at a very low cost. Bangladeshi workers are also going to Malaysia, she told her audience.

The BNP-Jamaat talks about religion, but they called hartal even on the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (SM) and on the days of Biswa Ijtema, she said, adding that they pushed the lives of about 1.5 million SSC students towards danger.

Hasina also said it was the sacred responsibility of the government to protect the lives and properties of people and that is why it had deployed members of Ansar alongside police, Rab and BGB personnel to curb subversive activities on highways and railways.

She praised the role of Ansar in protecting the properties of Bangladesh Railway before the January 5, 2014 election when the country was reeling from unprecedented sabotage of BNP and Jamaat cohorts.

The scale of destruction of property declined remarkably after the deployment of Ansar, Hasina said.

Some 8,328 Ansar members have so far been deployed in 1,041 points of Bangladesh Railway. Twelve Ansar members are also being deployed in each of the 993 points on highways, she told her audience.

Earlier, the PM handed over medals and cheques to 97 members of Ansar and VDP for their bravery and excellence in the service.