Trouble mongers to be resisted with iron hand: Hasan

Sounding a note of warning against the trouble mongers, Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Saturday said any untoward incident centering the visit of the Indian premier will be checked with an iron hand.

“Any anarchy centering the visit of Indian Premier Narendra Modi who has come to show solidarity with Bangladesh on the golden jubilee of independence and the birth centenary of Bangabandhu will be suppressed with iron hand,” he said.

The minister said this while unwrapping the book ‘Bangabandhu for You’ edited by Sattyam Ray Chowdhury at an auditorium of Jatiya Press Club in the capital. Friends of Bangladesh organised the programme.

Hasan said the vested quarter tried to create anarchy and they staged untoward incidents centering the visit of the Indian prime minister on the Independence Day of Bangladesh. But, they didn’t observe the golden jubilee of independence of the country, he added.

“What is the relation between the visit of Indian premier and the rail station? Why they torched a land office? Why they carried out attack on police station?” he posed the questions.

“They are evil forces. And they are enemies of the liberation, sovereignty, peace and communal harmony,” said Hasan, also Awami League joint general secretary.

He said fathers or grandfathers of many of them (trouble mongers) were razakars and they were against the Liberation War and were involved in violence on women and mass killing. The minister said, “Don’t consider the flexibility of the government as weakness. The government is determined to suppress such untoward incidents with an iron hand.”

Hasan said India gave shelter to one crore people during the Liberation War in 1971 and many Indians sacrificed blood along with the Freedom Fighters. “The then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited many countries to mould world opinions in favour of the independence of Bangladesh and to free Bangabandhu. And, now Narendra Modi comes here as the Indian prime minister, not as a leader of any party,” he added.

But, untoward incidents took place at different areas of Dhaka, Chattogram and Brahmanbaria centering the visit, he said. The same vested quarter created anarchy in 2013, 2014 and 2015. And BNP was with them, he added.

Hasan said the government knows who they are. They torched the Baitul Mukarram and the holy Quran and carried out petrol bombs attacks on the common people, he added.

Pankaj Debnath, MP, executive president of the organization Dr Radha Tomal Gowshwami, the daily Bhorer Kagoj editor Shyamol Datta, editor of the book Sattyam Ray Chowdhury, publisher Shankar Mandal, columnist Subhash Sing Ray, among others, addressed the function with chief coordinator of Friends of Bangladesh ASM Shamshul Arefin in the chair.