Dhaka, December 2 (Dhaka Tribune): The Bangladesh Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina Wajed told the visiting Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar that her country will not allow its soil to be used by terrorists to strike India.
Reiterating her government’s “zero tolerance policy” against terrorism and militancy, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said no one will be allowed to use Bangladesh’s soil for terrorist acts against any country.
“We won’t tolerate any sort of terrorism and militancy and won’t allow our land to be used for carrying out terrorist acts against any country,” she told visiting Indian Defence Minister Manohar Gopalkrishna Prabhu Parrikar who met Hasina at her official residence Ganabhaban on Thursday in the afternoon.
Sheikh Hasina recalled with gratitude the contributions of Indian armed forces to Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971, the PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told reporters.
The Prime Minister said she would honor those valiant Indian armed forces personnel who embraced martyrdom in the Liberation War during her upcoming visit to India.
In reply, the Indian Defense Minister said: “It was our moral responsibility to extend help to Bangladesh during the Liberation War as a friendly country and we provided that assistance.”
Sheikh Hasina thanked the Indian Coast Guard for rescuing Bangladeshi fishermen recently.
The Indian Defense Minister offered training for Bangladesh Coast Guard personnel. Parrikar highly appreciated Bangladesh’s tremendous socio-economic development, particularly in women empowerment, under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s able leadership.
“Bangladesh has made impressive developments in various sectors, especially women’s empowerment, which India could not do,” he noted.
Parrikar later handed over a replica of a helicopter that India used during Bangladesh’s War of Liberation and photographs of paratroopers who took part in the war.
PM’s International Affairs Adviser, Dr Gowher Rizvi, Principal Staff Officer of the Armed Forces Division Lt Gen Mahfuzur Rahman, PM’s Military Secretary Major General Mia Mohammad Joynul Abedin, PMO Secretary Surayia Begum and Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Harsha Vardhan Shringla were, among others, present at the meeting.
