Some quarter out to stir instability
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said a vested quarter was trying to create instability in the country in a planned way, but her government would tackle this with an iron fist.
Hasina, also the ruling Awami League president, was talking to party leaders at Sylhet Osmani International Airport about the killing of Italian aid Cesar Tavella and Japanese national Kunio Hoshi.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Sylhet city AL President Badruddin Ahmed Kamran and other local leaders met the PM at the airport as she made an hour's stopover on her way back to Dhaka from London.
"When Bangladesh is moving forward, a certain quarter is trying to create instability in the country in a planned way," Kamran quoted Hasina was saying.
Kamran, also former Sylhet Mayor, told this correspondent said the PM asked her party men to stay alert to any conspiracy.
On her return to capital, hundreds of people gave her a hearty reception, especially for her winning the United Nation's Champions of the Earth award in recognition of Bangladesh's far-reaching initiatives on climate change.
Leaders and activists of the Awami League, its front and like-minded organisations, other components of the AL-led 14-party combine standing on both sides of the road from the airport to the Gono Bhaban greeted Hasina.
The PM went to New York on September 24 to join the 70th UN General Assembly and later she spent a day in London.
She also received ICT Sustainable Development Award for improving lives through information and communication technology.
Top AL leaders, ministers and bureaucrats welcomed Hasina as her Biman flight landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 1:05pm.
Ruling party men started to gather on both sides of the road from 11:30am. Scores of them were seen arrived by bringing out small processions or riding buses, trucks and pick-ups.
Many were carrying national and party flags, placards, banners, festoons and portraits of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Sheikh Hasina.
They welcomed Hasina by showering flower petals and chanting slogans when her motorcade was passing by slowly and she was waving to the crowd.
A convoy of several hundred motor cycles of party men also followed the motorcade.
Apart from party leaders and activists, eminent personalities gave a warm reception to the PM when she reached the Gono Bhaban around 2:10pm.
Rezwana Choudhury Bannya welcomed Hasina with a rendition of a Tagore song. Poet and writer Syed Shamsul Haq, artist Hasem Khan, cricketers Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim, mountaineers Musa Ibrahim and Nishat Majumder presented the PM with bouquets.
Though reporters requested Hasina to say something at both the airports, she declined. At the Dhaka airport, the PM only said she would address a press conference today about the outcome of her just-concluded visit.
The press conference would be held at the Gono Bhaban at 11:30am.
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