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Vote for boat to let us serve you again
FROM PAGE 1
“They [BNP-Jamaat] thought that with some incidents of arson attacks, the government would fall. It’s not that easy…,” she said.
The people of the country are getting the benefits and results of AL in power, she added.
“Our aim is to build a poverty-free Sonar Bangla and I am working with utmost rigour to that end.”
Hasina mentioned that she has nothing more to lose after losing most of her family members, including her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“Only my younger sister [Rehana] and I survived. After losing everything, I even deprived my children of the love of their mother as I returned to Bangladesh in 1981 to fulfill my father’s dream, which was to build the country with the spirit of the Liberation War.”
She said her government has already taken up a plan to build “Smart Bangladesh”.
“Bangladesh will be a modern technology-based country that will have a sustainable economy, merit-based education, and advanced society … A righteous and transparent Bangladesh is what we want to build.”
Highlighting different development projects implemented by the government in last 15 years, she said if AL is voted back to power, it will take an initiative to introduce a metro rail in Sylhet, along with developing river banks for flood prevention.
She also said it will install a double-track rail line on the Dhaka-Sylhet route, construct another bridge beside Keane Bridge, dredge Kushiara, Manu and other rivers including the Surma after 50 years, and continue the expansion work of the Sylhet Osmani International Airport.
AL General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader; AL candidate for Sylhet-1 and Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen; presidium member Syeda Jebunnesa Huq; Sylhet City Corporation Mayor Anwaruzzaman Chowdhury, AL advisory council member Nurul Islam Nahid, Joint General Secretary and Education Minister Dipu Moni, Organising Secretary Shafiul Alam Chowdhury Nadel, and noted actress Tarin Jahan also spoke at the event.
Masuk Uddin, freedom fighter and president of Sylhet city AL, was in the chair while its General Secretary Zakir Hossain and Sylhet district AL General Secretary Nasir Uddin conducted the programme.
Centring the rally, the excitement was palpable in the entire region as locals as well as AL ranks decorated the city with pomp and flair for the arrival of their party chief ahead of the polls.
Though Hasina was scheduled to join the rally at 3:00pm, thousands of people thronged the ground from early in the morning. Within a few hours, the ground was bursting at the seams.
Many even reached the venue the night before to book the spots of their choice.
Hours before Hasina arrived, the crowd had already spilled over to surrounding areas and roads.
While many people were seen happily waiting in queues to get inside the venue since morning, others were seen marching towards it in procession, chanting “Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu”, holding colourful placards, banners, festoons, and the party’s flag and electoral symbol – the boat.
AL leaders, activists and supporters from adjoining districts joined the rally on buses, pickups, motorcycles, while some even came on foot.
VISIT TO SHRINES
Ahead of the rally, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her sister Rehana offered prayers at the shrines of Hazrat Shahjalal and Hazrat Shah Paran, formally starting her party’s campaign for next month’s national election.
After arriving in Sylhet city in the morning, they first went to the mazar of Hazrat Shahjalal. As they spent some time there, Hasina recited from the Holy Quran and offered prayers.
They then visited the mazar of Hazrat Shah Paran and did the same.
On her way to the shrines, she was greeted with slogans and claps by people who had been waiting for her arrival on both sides of the road.