Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said people will never give their mandate to anti-liberation forces, patrons of war criminals, corrupts and killers like BNP as they will drive the country from the path of development to destruction, reports UNB.  "The people of Bangladesh will never, ever cast their votes for these anti-liberation, corrupts, killers who killed people through arson attacks and patrons of war criminals. They will never be able to come to power ...people won't let them return [to power]," she said.  The Prime Minister said this while speaking at a discussion programme organised by Awami League marking the Great Victory Day and Martyred Intellectual Day at Bangabandhu International Conference Center.

 Hasina said those who want to develop the country and people's fate, free the country from hunger and poverty will ever support those who had nurtured war criminals, made them ministers and killed innocent people through arson attacks.  

"No, people must not support them... they're looters... they had promoted war criminals and terrorists, eliminated the peace of people... they had driven the country from the path of development to destruction," she said.

 The Prime Minister said the people of the country under the leadership of Bangabandhu and Awami League liberated the country. "The country is now marching forward. It'll move on and emerge as the developed and prosperous one."  

"The people of the country are moving around the world with their heads high, InshAllah they will continue this, this is our today's promise," she said.  

Sheikh Hasina, also the chief of Awami League, said the people of the country are reaping the fruits of the country's independence that they earned through the blood of tens of thousands of martyrs.

  "The benefits of the independence are reaching the people's doorsteps...no one will be able to play ducks and drakes with the fate of Bangladesh...we won't allow anyone to do that...this is our promise on the Victory Day," she said.

 Elaborating the chronological history of the country's independence starting from the Language Movement to the Liberation War in

1971, the Prime Minister said Bangabandhu led the struggle and movements for the liberation of the country.

"During the war, the collaborators of Pakistani occupation forces had handed our mothers and sisters to Pakistanis, while more than one crore people taken shelter in India," she said.

The entire world, including the friendly countries like India, Canada, France, Nepal, extended their support to the freedom-loving nation, she said adding that even the Americans were in favour of the people of Bangladesh, Hasina added. After the independence, the Prime Minister said, the Father of the Nation started the trial of the war criminals and banned the political activities of the anti-liberation forces.

She regretted that the Father of the Nation was assassinated at a time when he had begun rebuilding the war-ravaged country with farsighted development programmes.

After his assassination, Hasina said, Bangladesh began a backward journey as military dictator Ziaur Rahman had brought the killers, rapists, razakars and al-shams of 71 to power, and even stopped the trial of war criminals and released the convicted razakars from jail. On the other hand, the PM said, Khaleda Zia going another step ahead made the razakars members of her cabinet enabling them to fly the national flag in their cars.

After returning to power, Hasina said, her government tried the war criminals and executed the court verdicts as per her election pledge.

AL Advisory Council members Amir Hossain Amu and Tofail Ahmed, AL Presidium members Matia Chowdhury and Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, AL general secretary Obaidul Quader, son of martyred intellectual journalist Sirajuddin Hossain-Zahid Reza Nur, AL Liberation War Affairs Secretary MrinalKanti Das, AL Women Affairs Secretary Fazilatunnesa Indira, Dhaka North City AL general secretary Sadeq Khan and Dhaka South City AL General Secretary Shahe Alam Murad also took part in the discussion.

 AL publicity secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud and Deputy Publicity Secretary Aminul Islam Amin conducted the discussion. At the beginning of the discussion, a one-minute silence was observed in memory of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib and other martyrs of the August 15 carnage, four national leaders and martyrs of the Liberation War.