Awami League (AL) Advisory Council member and 14-party alliance spokesperson Amir Amir Hossain Amu today said anti-liberation forces who carried out August 15 assassination also made attempts to kill Sheikh Hasina are now hatching conspiracies to taint the Bangladesh-India relationship.
"The goals of these forces are to make the Liberation War controversial and thus ultimately hit the country's independence and sovereignty," said Amir Hossain Amu.
He was addressing a discussion as chief guest organized by Bangladesh-India Friendship Society (BIFS) marking the 103rd birth anniversary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Independence Day at Kabi Sufia Kamal Auditorium of the National Museum.
Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma and Awami League Advisory Council member Mozaffar Hossain Paltu addressed it as special guests while President of the organisation Md Rashidul Alam presided over.
Amu said those who are hatching conspiracy to taint Bangladesh-India relationship are actually against the country's Liberation War and sovereignty. They want to establish pro-Pakistan values and spirit replacing the existing one and make controversy over the country's independence and sovereignty, he added.
"Assassinating Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was not just enmity against an individual rather it was a part of consistent conspiracy against the country's Liberation War and sovereignty," Amu said, adding, "Frequent attacks on Bangabandhu's daughter Sheikh Hasina are another attempt of the anti-state forces to destroy country's independence and sovereignty."
Amu said, "Bangladesh-India relations will remain strong forever. Indian Army's role during the Liberation War can never be forgotten. Anti-liberation forces want to create cracks in Bangladesh-India relations. We have to remain alert and vigil against each of their conspiracies."
Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma said it was Bangabandhu's vision and his appetite for India that duo India and Bangladesh get closer together to share special and historic bond of friendship.
"It was traditionally rooted in the shared history, culture, language and people to people ties of our two nations but our friendship becomes even more reinforced by our common sacrifices during Liberation War," he added.
Verma said today, India and Bangladesh are not only neighbors but important partners and stakeholders in each other's prospect through an increasingly robust trade, investment, connectivity, energy, security and development cooperation.
"The connectivity between our two countries are not just in the physical sense, but also we are connected digitally, we are connected emotionally bringing other people closer to each other and that is the essence of India-Bangladesh friendship", he said.
"People to people relations remain at the heart of this relationship and everything that we are doing is to promote this contact between the people of two countries", he added.
Verma said under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, relations of the two countries are becoming model of good neighboring relations.
Terming Bangabandhu as a global statesman, he said the works and deeds of Bangabandhu who fought for the rights, aspiration, dignity of his countrymen and made supreme sacrifices for Bangladesh's Liberation, continue to inspire generation of people not only Bangladesh but also India and rest of the world as well.
Dhaka District AL President Benjir Ahmed, MP, Basanti Chakma, MP, Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) former President Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul and BIFS General Secretary Narayan Saha Moni also spoke at the discussion.
SOURCE: BANGLADESH SANGBAD SANGSTHA