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place in schools, shopping malls, and on streets.

“... People are being killed with their families inside homes. They should protect the human rights of their own people first,” she added.

Hasina, also the AL president, said thousands of women and men are suffering as refugees due to the war in Ukraine. Mentioning about the shootings in Syria and Palestine, the PM questioned why no one was speaking about those. “Are human rights not being violated there?”

The premier said her government sheltered the persecuted and forcibly displaced Rohingyas in Bangladesh. “We took the responsibility of so many people on humanitarian grounds. What can be a bigger instance of human rights protection than this?”

The AL chief questioned why would her government, which sheltered the people persecuted in another country, violate human rights.

She asked if those who say there are no human rights in Bangladesh saw the repression committed in 2001, the August 21 grenade attack and the incidents that happened from August 15, 1975, to 1996.

Hasina said the government’s goal is to protect the voting rights of the people and ensure their economic emancipation. “We have been doing the work and we will continue to do it.”

Talking about elections, the PM said city polls were held recently in Barishal, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Khulna and Gazipur. She said the AL lost in Gazipur and won in four other cities, but no one could raise any question about those elections.

“Did we go there to steal votes? We didn’t. Have such peaceful elections ever been held in Bangladesh before?”

Hasina said the AL has secured the voting rights of the people, made them aware of their rights and kept the democratic process uninterrupted in the country.

“They [BNP] were not able to destroy democracy by carrying out arson attacks, murders and other misdeeds from 2009 to 2023,” she said.