A total of 153 members of Bangladesh's armed forces and 24 police personnel have sacrificed their lives while serving in support of global peace, Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed told Parliament on Wednesday.
He disclosed the information in response to a question from Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami MP Abdul Gafur during the question-and-answer session.
In response to a question from National Citizen Party (NCP) MP Atiqur Rahman Mujahid, the minister outlined various government initiatives to develop, expand and modernise the Bangladesh Army.
He said the government was implementing a range of well-planned and timely programmes to strengthen and modernise the Army.
Initiatives were underway to procure state-of-the-art military equipment through government-to-government arrangements with countries advanced in military technology, including the United States, Russia, China, Türkiye and Pakistan, Salahuddin said.
He said the armed forces were also engaged in manufacturing various types of military equipment. The government was accelerating technology transfer arrangements with reputed foreign companies to facilitate domestic production of modern weaponry.
The minister added that the government had taken an initiative to build a second Bangladesh Ordnance Factory in Chattogram, aiming to make the country's defence industry fully self-reliant and export-oriented in the near future.
In response to a question from Nilufar Chowdhury Moni, Land Minister Mizanur Rahman Minu said 494,869 families had been allotted 122,544.307 acres of agricultural khas land (government-owned fallow land) between the 2011-12 and 2025-26 financial years.
Replying to a question from BNP MP Selina Sultana, he said the country had 1,825,207.74 acres of agricultural khas land, of which 1,328,445.2745 acres were available for allotment.
In the 2025-26 financial year, 190.01 acres of agricultural khas land were eligible for allotment, while 1,882 landless families had received such land, the minister said.
He said the country also had 2,104,375.9109 acres of non-agricultural khas land, of which 112,723 acres were available for allotment.
In response to another question from Moni, Agriculture Minister Mohammed Aminur Rashid said the country had 3,529 agricultural seed stores, of which 3,296 were unused.
Replying to a question from BNP MP Lutfur Rahman Kajal, he said researchers under the National Agricultural Research System had so far developed more than 1,193 high-yielding and stress-tolerant crop varieties and 1,775 modern agricultural technologies to ensure food and nutrition security.
Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister M Rashiduzzaman Millat, responding to a question from Bogura-4 MP Md Mosharraf Hossain, said the government planned to construct a new international airport with multiple runways in the vicinity of Dhaka.
The initiative aimed to meet growing passenger and cargo demand in the future and transform Bangladesh into an international aviation hub, he said.
In reply to a question from Kajal, the minister said Biman Bangladesh Airlines currently had 19 aircraft in its fleet.
He said agreements had already been signed to purchase a total of 35 aircraft, including 25 from Boeing and 10 from Airbus.
The Boeing aircraft are scheduled to join Biman's fleet between 2031 and 2035, while the Airbus aircraft are expected to be delivered between 2033 and 2035.
Forest and Environment Minister Abdul Awal Mintoo, replying to a question from reserved-seat Jamaat MP Nazmun Nahar, said around 217,000 acres of government forest land were under illegal occupation.
He outlined various government plans to recover the encroached land.
In response to a separate question from reserved-seat MP Mahabuba Hakim, the minister said 88,215 individuals and commercial entities were involved in the illegal occupation of forest land.
He added that joint eviction drives were underway to recover the occupied forest areas.
Replying to a question from BNP MP Kamruzzaman Kamrul, the minister said the government had allocated Tk 42,51,71,94,700 to the Climate Change Trust Fund from its revenue budget over 18 financial years, from 2009-10 to 2026-27, to address climate change-related risks.
In response to a question from BNP MP Helen Jerin Khan, Mintoo said government statistics showed that forest land accounted for 15.58 per cent of the country's total area.