Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed has said: “What Hasina? Where did she speak? Was her face even seen? Now and then only some noise is heard. They are trying to see whether any instability can be created in Bangladesh. But the people of Bangladesh will never accept such politics from them.”
He made the remarks in response to journalists’ questions on Friday (7 August) after laying the foundation stone for a new building of the 500-bed Cox’s Bazar Medical College Hospital.
He said those responsible for mass killings and crimes against humanity had no remorse and had not apologised to the people of Bangladesh, so the people would never allow them any political activity in the country.
In the home minister’s words, they could peek in and shout from abroad now and then, but “we no longer give this any importance.”
Earlier, at about 11am, the home minister inaugurated the Cox’s Bazar Development Authority’s (CDA) Flat Development Project-01. He called on those concerned not to focus only on building brick-and-concrete structures and infrastructure. Salahuddin Ahmed said all planning for tourism development must preserve nature, and that building tall structures alone could not be tourism. He said tourism-friendly activity should be conducted along the entire 100km of Cox’s Bazar beach, and that the beauty of Cox’s Bazar had to be spread worldwide to attract travellers.
The home minister said various areas had earlier been arbitrarily declared ecologically critical areas (ECAs) under the fascist government, and that a directive had been given to reconsider this, through surveys, for the sake of tourism development.
On crimes such as abductions in Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf and elsewhere, the home minister said the army would take steps to set up camps at necessary locations to curb such crimes. The GOC would review the situation, he said, adding that they had requested this and that the government would also ask the army to set up camps in the necessary areas, in the hope of effectively curbing or significantly reducing heinous crimes such as abduction.
Also present were Cox’s Bazar district BNP president and Cox’s Bazar-4 (Ukhiya-Teknaf) MP Shahjahan Chowdhury, district BNP general secretary and reserved-seat MP Advocate Shamim Ara Swapna, Cox’s Bazar-2 (Maheshkhali-Kutubdia) MP Alamgir Muhammad Mahfuz Ullah Farid, Cox’s Bazar deputy commissioner Md A Mannan, police superintendent ANM Sajedur Rahman, CDA chairman Engineer Mohammad Jasim Uddin and Cox’s Bazar Medical College principal Dr Mujibul Haque.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report