Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said none will be allowed to be benefitted by burning people to death alive and foiling the upcoming parliamentary elections slated for 7 January in 2024.
“No one will be allowed to accrue benefit by burning people to death and foiling the election in Bangladesh,” she said while exchanging greetings with the Christian community at her official residence, Ganabhaban, in the capital on Christmas Day.
Younger daughter of Bangladesh’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and only sister of the prime minister, Sheikh Rehana, was present on the dais.
The prime minister came down heavily on those who ordered such heinous attacks and those who executed.
Referring to “an incident of setting fire to a passenger train by the BNP and Jamaat clique”, she said that a mother with her little child was killed in the fire. “We don’t want to see such a scenario.”
The prime minister questioned what they have achieved by burning people to death, setting fire to buses, trains and other vehicles.
“What have they achieved by killing people, uprooting fish plates of the railway track and damaging properties of the masses to pursue a politically ill motive? I don’t know what kind of politics it is,” she said.
Noting that burning people to death alive is a great sin and injustice, she stated, “This injustice cannot be tolerated anymore. No religion can accept this. Jisus Christ sacrificed his life for humanity.”
Sheikh Hasina said humanity and welfare of mankind is the main verse of all the religions. “We are running the state maintaining the belief.”
The prime minister said the country is for all irrespective of caste, creed, religions and professions.
“All will live here independently. I wish welfare and development for all,” she remarked.
The prime minister also stated people from all faiths exercise their religious rituals freely here as Bangladesh is a secular state.
“People of all religions will perform their religious rituals freely (in the country) as religion is for individuals but festivals for all,” she said.
Bangladesh has set an example on the global stage, Sheikh Hasina said, adding that the people of Bangladesh attend all the religious festivals irrespective of their faiths.
“Bangladesh is a secular state. People of the region have been living with religious harmony for thousands of years,” she said.
The prime minister recalled that all irrespective of religions have shed blood and fought shoulder to shoulder for the country’s independence.
She reiterated her vow to transform Bangladesh into developed, prosperous and “Smart Sonar Bangla” by 2041, saying that they have already made a developing country.
Referring to the Gaza issue, the prime minister said children and women are being killed in the birthplace of Jisus Christ who had sacrificed his life for the noble cause of spreading humanity.
“This is really a matter of great regret. I am repeatedly calling for stopping the war whenever I am getting a chance in the international arena,” she said.
The prime minister extended her Xmas greetings to the Christian community in Bangladesh and even elsewhere in the entire world.
State Minister for Religious Affairs Faridul Haque Khan, Archbishop Bejoy Nicephorus D’Cruze, Vice Presidents of Bangladesh Christian Association Jewel Aarong, MP, Advocate Gloria Jharna Sarker, MP, Religious Affairs Secretary Md A Hamid Zamadder, President of Bangladesh Christian League Daniel Nirmal D’ Costa and General Secretary of Bangladesh Christian Association Hemonta I Corraya spoke on the occasion.
President of Bangladesh Christian Association Nirmal Rozario presided over the function.
Archbishop of Dhaka Archdiocese Bejoy Nicephorus D’Cruze and President of Bangladesh Christian Association Nirmal Rozario jointly handed over the Christmas greeting card to the prime minister.
At the function, Christmas carols and other patriotic songs were performed by the members of the Christian community.