"This section of people failed to realise the obstacles the then Awami League government faced to fulfill people’s expectations just after the independence of the country," the Prime Minister said.
She also said this impatient attitude caused a great loss to the country and ultimately helped the anti-liberation forces and conspirators assume power. “Some political leaders at that time couldn’t realise that the conspiracy of the anti-liberation forces would continue after the independence of the country," she said.
With an emotion-chocked voice, Sheikh Hasina briefly described the brutal assassination of her family members, saying she and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana escaped the brutal killing as they were abroad at that time.
She also said military dictator Ziaur Rahman did not allow her to return home for six years. "It was gradually established that the aim of the August 15 killing was to put the anti-liberation forces into the state power," she said.
The Prime Minister said as Zia was very much trusted to killer Khandaker Mushtaque Ahmed, he was made the army chief just after the August 15 carnage.
Turning to development unleashed in the last 10 years, she said the country achieved higher growth, kept the inflation under control, increased the per capital income and reduced the poverty rate. "There’s no scarcity of food in the country. The government is working tirelessly to make the country free from hunger and poverty," she said.
AL leaders Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Matia Chowdhury, Mohammad Nasim, Advocate Abdul Matin Khasru, Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Abdur Rahman, AFM Bahauddin Nasim and Advocate Azmat Ullah Khan also spoke at the programme.
At the outset of the meeting, a one-minute silence was observed in memory of Bangabandhu and other martyrs of the August 15 carnage.