Identified quarter is trying to hinder Bangladesh's advancement: Quader

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader today said an identified quarter is obstructing the country's advancement as it has been hatching plots at home and abroad.

"The conspirators do not know that Sheikh Hasina, like Bangabandhu, does not know how to retreat as she never afraid of any conspiracy," she told a joint meeting with secretariat of Awami League, and leaders of the party's Dhaka North and South City units and affiliated organisations.

The meeting was organised marking the 76th birthday of AL President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to be observed on September 28 next.

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, said the plotters do not know that if Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina loses; Bangladesh, its independence and the spirit of liberation war will lose.

If Sheikh Hasina does not remain in power, Bangladesh will no longer exist, he added.

Responding to a BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir's statement that 'They were in good position during Pakistan era', Quader said these nationalists want to make Bangladesh Pakistan again but "We will not allow them to make our beloved motherland as Pakistan".

Noting this is the pledge of today that the conspirators will be resisted in any way, the AL general secretary said: "We liberated this country by fighting against Pakistan. Fakhrul Sahib, why do you love Pakistan so much? Then, this proves that Ziaur Rahman killed Bangabandhu in 1975 to take revenge of 1971".

About the clashes between the BNP and AL men, he said BNP men fought each other's in Barishal and Chattogram but the media do not want to publish the negative news of BNP.

Quader urged the AL leaders and workers not to get involved in any clash.

"If anyone gets involved in clashes, he or she will not be spared. If they do so denying our leader's (Sheikh Hasina) instruction, the responsibility will fall on the government. Our leader does not tolerate any misdeed," he said.

He blamed that the BNP wants to put responsibility of its internal clashes on the government.

About the upcoming general elections, Quader said the country's people will take two things - personal honesty and development - into their account in the next polls.

AL presidium members Matia Chowdhury, Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya and Kamrul Islam, its joint general secretaries Mahbubul Alam Hanif, Dr Hasan Mahmud (also Information and Broadcasting Minister) and AFM Bahauddin Nasim, organising secretaries Ahmad Hossain, BM Mozammel Haque, Abu Sayeed Al Mahmud Swapan and Afzal Hossain, relief and social welfare secretary Sujit Roy Nandi, labour affairs secretary Habibur Rahman Siraj, liberation war affairs secretary Mrinal Kanti Das, agriculture and cooperative affairs secretary Faridunnahar Laili, forest and environment affairs secretary Delwar Hossain, science and technology affairs secretary Abdus Sabur, deputy publicity secretary Aminul Islam, Dhaka South City AL president Abu Ahmad Mannafi, Dhaka North City AL president Sheikh Bazlur Rahman and Dhaka South City AL general secretary Humayun Kabir, among others, were present.