Prime Minister Tarique Rahman said on Tuesday that the ousted autocrat and a faction of the opposition had joined hands to hatch conspiracies aimed at destabilizing the country. He urged the public to remain vigilant against any attempts to foment unrest.
Addressing a rally at the Haji Muhammad Mohsin Government High School ground in Rajshahi, he said, “We’ve intelligence reports that the ousted autocrat is providing money from across the border to a particular political party, which is trying to create instability here.”
The prime minister stated that intelligence reports indicated attempts to generate disorder within the country. Referencing recent efforts to provoke labor unrest at multiple factories across various regions, he said, “We say: ‘We will work, we will build, Bangladesh first.’ Those who do not believe in this slogan and principle are now involved in conspiracies.”
Addressing the people, Tarique Rahman stated that the time had arrived for the citizens of Bangladesh to remain vigilant to prevent anyone from creating disorder or obstructing the process of improving the economy and changing people’s fortunes.
He stated that the government had undertaken initiatives to reopen closed mills and factories in order to generate employment and address the issue of unemployment.
In Rajshahi district, he stated, the government had convened businesspeople and entrepreneurs to encourage the reopening of closed industrial units. Over the past seven months, six closed mills and factories had been successfully reopened, he added.
“The core objective is to ensure that our workers do not remain unemployed and can return to work,” said the prime minister. Announcing that the government had taken initiatives to reopen around 46 more closed factories across the country between January and December next year, he stated: “We want our workers to have jobs so they can earn a living and sustain themselves.”
Tarique Rahman also announced that the government has decided to increase the bed capacity of every upazila health complex from 50 to 100 within the next five years to improve healthcare accessibility for ordinary citizens.
He stated that separate beds for children and women, alongside dialysis facilities for kidney patients, would be introduced at the hospitals to spare rural residents from having to travel to distant towns for routine treatment.
At the beginning of the meeting, the prime minister distributed Tk12 crore in incentives among 38,970 sugarcane farmers in the Rajshahi region. He transferred the incentive money to the farmers’ mobile accounts by pressing a button on a computer and handed over cheques to 15 farmers.
Chaired by BNP Acting Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, the event was also addressed by Land Minister Mizanur Rahman Minu, Commerce Minister Khandakar Abdul Muktadir, Cultural Affairs Minister Nitai Roy Chowdhury, BNP Standing Committee Member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, and members of parliament from Rajshahi.
Thousands of party leaders and activists representing various units of the Rajshahi district attended the meeting, alongside men and women from the Hindu community.
Earlier, the prime minister arrived at Shah Makhdum Airport in Rajshahi via a military aircraft at 2:50 p.m. and proceeded directly to the meeting venue.
Before arriving in Rajshahi, he visited a Durga Puja mandap at Dharmasabha Temple in Rangpur. Following his engagements in Rajshahi, he departed for Shah Makhdum Airport to travel to Chittagong.
Why it matters
The prime minister's warnings and announcements regarding industrial revival and healthcare expansion outline the government's current security stance and domestic development priorities.