Nothing can be achieved through arson violence: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said nothing can be achieved through arson violence, expressing her hope that the BNP-Jamaat alliance will come back to its senses to put an end to the anarchy.

"Nothing can be achieved through burning people to death. This is wrong. Something can be gained by the power of the general people. Working for the people's welfare and staying beside them are other requirements to achieve something," she said.

The prime minister was addressing a reception accorded to the gallantry award-winning freedom fighters of the armed forces and their heirs at the Army Multipurpose Complex at Dhaka Cantonment marking Armed Forces Day on Tuesday morning.

She also presented peacetime awards to the selected members of the armed forces for their outstanding contributions to their respective fields during 2022-23.

The prime minister said the path of arson violence is to be shunned to achieve something, wishing that the BNP-Jamaat clique would come back to their sense to stop the arson violence to relieve the countrymen from suffering.

The BNP-Jamaat clique started the recurrence of the arson terrorism likewise 2013-14 in the name of a movement to dislodge the government.

"We had seen the incidents of burning people to death by the Pakistani occupation forces during the War of Liberation in 1971. BNP-Jamaat has started the same thing. I don't know how a man can burn people to death. I want them to come back to their sense," she said.

The prime minister earlier in the morning paid glowing tributes to the martyred members of the Bangladesh Armed Forces by placing a wreath at the Shikha Anirban (flame eternal) in Dhaka Cantonment on the occasion of the Armed Forces Day-2023.

Earlier, on her arrival at the Shikha Anirban, the premier was received by Chief of Army Staff General S M Shafiuddin Ahmed, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral M Nazmul Hassan, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Shaikh Abdul Hannan and Principal Staff Officer (PSO) of the Armed Forces Division (AFD) Lieutenant General Waker-Uz-Zaman.

After the wreath-placing ceremony, the prime minister went to the AFD where her Security Adviser Major General (retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique and chiefs of the three services made a courtesy call on her.

/KN/