Talks underway to get back Noor Chy: PM

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said Bangladesh’s diplomatic relations with Pakistan would continue alongside quarrel although Pakistan was making various adverse statements on the ongoing war crimes trial.

‘Diplomatic ties with a country normally remain…whatever (adverse thing) they (Pakistan) are saying, we’re protesting that...our diplomatic relations with them will continue alongside quarrel,’ she said.

Sheikh Hasina said this replying to a query about reconsidering diplomatic relations with Pakistan during her scheduled press conference at her official residence Ganobhaban in the afternoon on her recent fortnight visits to Canada and the USA.

The prime minister said Pakistan was a defeated force and it was compelled to recognise Bangladesh in 1974.

Hasina said there might be differences of opinion and the defeated forces could say anything. ‘It matters little what they say about us, but the main thing is we’re doing our work properly like holding war crimes’ trial.’

She went on saying, ‘They’ll (defeated forces) feel pain in their hearts as they’re (war criminals) their Piare Bandas (beloved ones). So, they’ll shed tears a bit for them (war criminals).’

About her Canada visit, the prime minister said Bangladesh’s relations with Canada further consolidated and deepened through her recent visit to the North American country.

‘The high-level (bilateral) visit took place after a span of three decades and through the tour, the Dhaka-Ottawa relations have been strengthened and deepened further,’ she said.
Sheikh Hasina paid a four-day official visit to Canada in September 15-18 to attend the 5th Replenishment Conference of the Global Fund at the personal invitation of her Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau.

Justin Trudeau highly praised Bangladesh’s anti-terrorism and militancy stance. ‘Apart from this, we discussed issues related to bilateral interests like climate change, trade and investment,’ she said.

She said she requested Justin Trudeau to extradite Noor Chowdhury, the self-confessed killer of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, from Canada, saying his trial would be held as per the existing law of the country.

In this connection, she said, Justin Trudeau expressed deep sympathy about the August 15 carnage and mentioned some legal barriers to extraditing Noor Chowdhury.

He, however, underscored the importance of starting talks between proper representatives to find out a way to resolve the sensitive issue after ensuring justice.
The prime minister said she invited Trudeau to visit Bangladesh which he cordially accepted.

Referring to the BNP, the prime minister also questioned whether those who had made war criminals ministers and stopped the trial of war criminals have any right to do politics in the country.

She said Ziaur Rahman, grabbing power illegally after 1975, had stopped the trial of war criminals, freed some 11,000 war criminals from jail and had withdrawn some 22,000 cases against them.

Asked whether SAARC would remain intact the coming days, Hasina said she would not be able to say anything personally as the current chairperson of SAARC was now Nepal and a united decision was needed in this regard.

Asked about the ongoing tensions between the two nuclear rivals Pakistan and India, the prime minister said the matter was really worrying. ‘We don’t want any such tension between these two countries or any apprehension of war.’

‘We want these two countries to resolve their bilateral problems through talks. There’s no such conflict in this region. We need to keep in mind if such incident happens, we’ll be affected and our pace of development would be deterred, so we don’t want such thing (conflict and tension),’ she said.

When her attention was drawn to the willingness of BNP to reconstitute the Election Commission, Hasina said BNP wanted that kind of Election Commission which would make fake voter list as the Election Commission constituted during their tenure had made a voter list comprising over some 1.23 crore fake voters.

‘The present Election Commission did not make any such fake voter list and this is not liked by BNP as they want such EC which would make a false voter list,’ she added.
The prime minister said she would be happy if the AL men gave her the scope to go into retirement after 35 years of relentless works from top post. The AL leaders who were present at the press conference said ‘no’.
AL general secretary and public administration minister Syed Ashraful Islam, LGRD minister engineer Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali, PM’s media adviser Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, state minister for foreign affairs M Shahriar Alam were present at the dais. PM’s press secretary Ihsanul Karim conducted the press conference. 

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