Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said a vested quarter continues misleading people by spreading various rumours, but there is nothing for the people to be misguided.
“Today some words are being propagated in many ways and it will continue for many days. Many people can be misled. I would like to say there is nothing to be misguided,” she said.
The premier was addressing the graduation ceremony of National Defence Course-2022 and Armed Forces War Course-2022 at Sheikh Hasina Complex of Defence Services Command and Staff College (DSCSC) in Mirpur Cantonment.
Hasina said it is unfortunate for Bangladesh that when the country advances to economic progress amid a peaceful environment, all people don’t like it.
Talking about the world economic crisis induced by the war and economic sanctions, she said her government has still been able to keep Bangladesh stable.
“A quarter continues misleading the people through saying many things and injecting fear among the people,” she said.
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The PM said her government has been able to raise the reserve of foreign currencies to $ 48 billion during the Covid-19 period from only $ 5 billion in 2009. Then the money from the reserve was spent to procure Covid-19 vaccines and testing kits, food and others, she added.
She said her government’s goal is always to develop Bangladesh socio-economically. “We’ll continue to make socio-economic development of Bangladesh keeping its people free from terrorism, militancy, terrorism, drug and corruption. We don’t want war with anyone,” she added.
Hasina said Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman framed a foreign policy where he said friendship with all, malice towards none.
“We’ve friendly relations with every country. We’re marching forward. Because, we don’t want war, rather we want peace. We witnessed the consequences of the war. If there is any problem, we solve it through negotiation,” she continued.
In this context, she mentioned solutions to maritime disputes with neighbours in a peaceful way and implementation of land boundary agreement through discussions.
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The PM stressed the need for attaining economic independence. “Unless we can attain economic self-reliance, we won’t be able to uphold our independence and its spirit. So, we’ve been working to accomplish the goal," she said.
She said today Bangladesh has got the status of a developing country thanks to the continuation of an uninterrupted democratic trend and her government’s special attention paid to socio-economic development.
She put emphasis on upholding the recognition of a developing nation.
The PM said the Armed Forces stand always beside the people in any disaster and trouble. They earned public trust and confidence inside the country. The armed forces and police are getting acclamation from the United Nations for playing their roles efficiently in the peacekeeping missions in foreign lands, she added.
The PM extended her sincere thanks to the armed forces for upholding the image of the country.
She also congratulated the fresh NDC and AFWC graduates on their successful completion of their respective courses.
Later, the prime minister attended the 19th joint governing body meeting of National Defence College (NDC) and Defence Services Command and Staff College (DSCSC) as the president of the joint governing body of both institutions there.