Staff Correspondent

Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina has said those involved in arson violence and uprooting rail line fish plates are the accomplices of the defeated forces of 1971, reiterating the pledge that the country would never be handed over to them.

"Those carrying out arson violence and uprooting rail line fish plate are the accomplices of the defeated force (of 1971). We will never hand over the country to the defeated forces," she said, reports BSS.

She made the remarks while presiding over a discussion marking the Martyred Intellectuals Day organised by the AL at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the capital on Thursday.

The Prime Minister urged the countrymen to remain alert about conspiracies being hatched by the defeated forces at home and abroad and build collective resistance against any sort of violence as they are out to thwart the upcoming general election.

She asked the people to say 'no' to them, saying, "They have no rights to do politics in Bangladesh."

The premier came down heavily on Tarique for giving order to kill people by launching arson terrorism and uprooting fish plates of the rail line staying abroad though he left the country in 2007 by giving a bond of not doing politics.

Referring to the cutting of rail line track at Shreepur in Gazipur by the BNP terrorists in the name of enforcing hartal and blockade to dislodge the government what they said to establish the democracy, she said one person was killed in the mishap while the death toll could be much higher.

"How they can establish democracy by killing people. The killers never can give democracy," she added.

AL Presidium Members, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, MP, central executive body member Advocate Tarana Halim, Dhaka North and South City AL President and Vice President respectively Sheikh Bazlur Rahman and Nurul Alam Ruhul, among others, spoke on the occasion.

Martyred Faizur Rahman Ahmed's son and noted educationist Prof Dr Muhammed Zafar Iqbal and martyred intellectual Dr Alim Choudhury's daughter Prof. Dr. Nuzhat Choudhury addressed the function while General Secretary of the Sammilita Sangskritik Jote Ahkam Ullah read out a brief part from the book "Sheikh Mujib Amar Pita" written by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

AL Publicity and Publication Secretary Dr Abdus Sobhan Golap, MP, and his Deputy Syed Abdul Awal Shamim, moderated the discussion.