Govt to form tribunals for speedy trial of Khaleda, associates: PM

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Wednesday told parliament that ‘the government has plans’ to form special tribunals under Section 27 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009 for trials of cases filed against BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and her associates for instructions for petrol bomb attacks. Until such tribunals are formed, sessions judges and additional sessions judges have given power for expeditious disposal of the cases under the 2009 act, Hasina said in her scripted reply to a question from ruling Awami League lawmaker Selina Begum. She said that cases were filed for every incident of petrol bomb attacks at places across the country. Proper investigations into the cases in shortest possible time have been instructed and the cases are being monitored, she said, adding that important ones of those cases would be transferred to Speedy Trial Tribunals. Hasina said that 134 people, including six in Comilla on June 2, were killed in petrol bomb attacks and violence and 1,395 vehicles were set on fire during the general strikes and blockade enforced by the BNP-led alliance since January 5. In a special discussion and in her closing remark in sixth session of the present parliament, the leader of the house accused her arch rival former prime minister Khaleda Zia of ‘destabilising’ country’s political situation. She said that Bangladesh could certainly have 7 per cent GDP growth rate over the years if there had been no violence and barriers caused by political front. The parliament adopted a resolution thanking Hasina for her ‘dynamic leadership to turn Bangladesh into a lower middle-income country.’ Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, who was presiding over the day’s sitting, passed the motion unanimously by voice vote after a special discussion on the issue. Awami League lawmaker Abdur Razzak moved the motion as World Bank placed Bangladesh on its recent list of lower middle-income countries. Taking part in the discussion on the motion, the prime minister said that the countrymen deserved the thanks. She alleged that the achievements that the country made so far braving various obstacles like arson, vandalism, killings and burning people to deaths by the BNP-Jamaat alliance. She said that Bangladesh would turn into a higher middle-income country by 2021 when the country would be observing its golden jubilee of independence. Hasina said that during her solitary confinement during the immediate past interim regime, she had visualised plans for sector-wise development and in the light of that the ‘Vision 2021’ was declared before 2008 general elections. In her closing remark in the sixth session of the present parliament, the prime minister accused Khaleda of repeated ‘falsehood’ about accusing the police personnel of hurling petrol bombs during their non-stop blockade and hartal. ‘These police men work tirelessly day and night to maintain law and order, but she [Khaleda] started accusing them…They [BNP] are trying to shift their crimes onto others,’ she added. Hasina said that it was known to all that BNP and Jamaat men hurled petrol bombs during blockade. The prime minister also ridiculed Khaleda for her announcement that she would not return to her house from her Gulshan office without toppling the Awami League government. ‘But she had to surrender before a court and go back to her house,’ she said. The second budget session of the 10th parliament was prorogued on Wednesday after 26 sittings that passed the national budget for the 2015-16 fiscal and five bills.

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