Prof Anisuzzaman hands over a citation to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a civic reception to her at the Suhrawardy Udyan yesterday. Jatiya Nagorik Committee accorded the reception to the premier.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the long-awaited Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) with India is the political and diplomatic success of the Awami League government.
“Apart from implementation of the Land Boundary Agreement, the government’s present aim is to ensure development of this region through regional cooperation,” she said at a reception programme in the capital.
Jatiya Nagorik Committee, a platform of pro-Awami League civil society members, accorded the mass reception to the prime minister “for her dynamic leadership that brought many successes for the nation, including the LBA with India”.
On the deal that will see the two neighbours swapping 162 enclaves, Sheikh Hasina said: “We needed no third party for the Land Boundary Agreement. We [Bangladesh and India] have been able to resolve every problem through bilateral talks. Very few neighbouring countries in the world can attain this kind of achievements through bilateral talks.”
“This is our political success. This is our diplomatic success … Bangladesh will be built as a developed and prosperous nation in South Asia,” she said to receive thunderous applause from boisterous crowd of a few thousand people.
“Bangladesh is advancing fast socio-economically. Many had predicted that Bangladesh, if liberated, would be a bottomless basket. I want to say to them that Bangladesh is no more a bottomless basket today. Bangladesh’s basket is full of developments. And the country is an example to the whole world.”
Hasina said when she used to travel abroad in the past, she often would find people neglecting Bangladesh. “But today the country has stood on its own feet.”
“What we have achieved so far is not a big deal. We will have to go a long way. We will have to take the country to the highest peak of development.
The premier sought blessings and cooperation from all to complete the trials of all war criminals.
Hasina, also the president of the ruling Awami League, said she did not fear death and would make any sacrifice for the welfare of the nation.
The pro-AL platform conferred a new honorific title on Sheikh Hasina — Deshratno — at the programme. When noted wordsmith Syed Shamsul Haque, who chaired the programme, proposed that the new title would be used before Sheikh Hasina’s name from now on, virtually everyone from the audience raised their hands in support.
Cultural personality Nasiruddin Yusuf Bachchu, Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman, Shaheed Jaya Shyamoli Nasrin Chowdhury, former captain of Bangladesh cricket team Akram Khan, educationist Dr Anupam Sen, economist Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad and historian Muntasir Mamun also spoke in the programme.
Ministers, lawmakers, AL leaders, vice-chancellors of different public universities, senior government officials, freedom fighters, cultural personalities, artists, students and people from different other professions attended at the programme defying intermittent rainfall.
Source: The Daily Star
