No clemency for saboteurs: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said those involved in acts of sabotage to dislodge the government would have to face the music.

“There is no clemency for them. They will have to face punishment. I would like to ask the people also to stand against them,” she said, referring to the train accident that took place due to uprooting of rail track in Gazipur by the BNP-Jamaat clique in the name of hartal and blockade.

The premier said made the remarks while exchanging views with the newly elected committee of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) at her official Ganabhaban residence here.

She said some 20 feet of rail track was cut with a gas cutter machine at Sreepur upazila in Gazipur on Wednesday afternoon in which eight bogies of Mohonganj Express, coming from Netrakona, got derailed in Gazipur leaving a man killed and several others injured.

“That means it is an attempt to kill the people by distracting the train bogies. They want to overthrow the government by killing the people. What can they achieve from a movement by killing people?” she said.

“They can’t oust the government by killing people. What politics do they do?” she the Prime Minister.

Coming down heavily on the BNP activists, she said the terrorists belonging to the party did the same thing on several occasions in the past.

She said BNP continues arson violence and they are announcing strike (hartal) and blockade programmes every day, adding that the strike and blockade meant burning several buses and trucks.

Sheikh Hasina said those who plan to kill people by uprooting rail tracks or burn people alive have no sense of humanity.

“So, it is the people who will have to resist it,” she said.

The premier expressed her disappointment over the misdeeds, saying, “What will be the future of the country if they carry out such activities at a time when we are offsetting the brunt of the global economic recession?”

She said they (BNP) should go to the people if they want to assume power.

“We’ve no intension to hang on to power. We’re making development of Bangladesh as long as we are in power. None can deny that the country witnessed development. Today, Bangladesh has radically changed,” she said.

The new FBCCI committee headed by its president Mahbubul Alam was elected in August 2023 for the 2023-2025 tenure.

FBCCI senior vice president Md. Amin Helaly and three vice presidents Khairul Huda Chopol, Mohammad Anwar Sadat Sarker and Joshoda Jibon Debnath were among the newly elected office-bearers.