Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-Jamaat ‘terrorists’ were still trying to harass the people in different ways by holding them hostage.

‘Terrorists of BNP and Jamaat understand nothing except bomb attack, grenade attack and shooting. They killed people burning them and unleashing arson violence…. They still are trying to harass people in different ways by holding them hostage,’ she said referring to the violence before and during the 2014 general election.

The premier said this while declaring another 12 districts and 123 upazilas free of homeless and landless people and opening the distribution of 22,101 houses among the poor under Ashrayan-2 project through a videoconference from her official residence Ganabhaban.

Hasina said that her government had relentlessly been working for the people.

‘We know we’ve an opposition party here. They do misdeeds such as killing people, resorting to arson violence, setting fire to buses and trains, attacking police and killing the general people,’ she said.

The PM was connected virtually with the beneficiaries and local people of three places while distributing the houses to the landless and homeless families on the sixth occasion since Mujib Year.

The three places are Barasat Sonar Bangla Palli Ashrayan Project site in Terokhada Upazila under Khulna, Chakla Ashrayan-2 project site in Bera Upazila under Pabna, and Amanullahpur Ashrayan project site in Begumganj Upazila under Noakhali district.

The keys of 22,101 houses and the ownership documents of a two-decimal of house lands were handed over to the families in different districts of the country. Some 115,000 people are being rehabilitated in the houses.

With the 12 districts and 123 upazilas, a total of 21 districts and 334 upazilas throughout the country have so far become homeless and landless family-free ones.

The 12 districts that earned the distinction of becoming free of landless and homeless families are Manikganj, Rajbari, Mymensingh, Sherpur, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Naogaon, Natore, Pabna, Kushtia, Pirojpur and Jhalakathi.

The prime minister said that the voting and democratic rights of the people were snatched after the assassination of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.

She said that the ruling Awami League, taking like-minded parties on their board, waged movements and struggled for many days to establish the democratic rights and the people’s rights to vote and food in the country.

‘Today the people got back their voting rights and democratic rights,’ she said, adding that AL has protected the voting rights and democratic rights of the people.

‘Our party believes in democracy and returned the voting rights to the hands of the people,’ said AL president Hasina.

Noting that a stable situation has been prevailed in the country since 2009, she said Bangladesh has been marching forward on the journey of the people’s socio-economic uplift by overcoming hundreds of barriers – natural and manmade disasters.

She said that Bangladesh had gained the status of a developing country. The poverty rate declined to 18 percent from 41 percent, while the extreme poverty rate fell to 5 percent from 25 percent during her government, she added.

‘Inshallah, there will be no extreme poor anymore in this country,’ she declared.

The PM asked the people to keep their trust and confidence in her government.

Since AL has been in power in a row, now the government provides free abodes to the landless people, brought cent percent houses under electricity coverage, developing every sector including roads, schools and colleges, she said.

Hasina said that her government had tirelessly been working to change the fate of the people of every class and profession. ‘Our only goal is to improve the life of the people of Bangladesh,’ she said.

She expressed her gratitude to the people of this country for keeping their trust and confidence in her.

The PM said that her government was providing not only free houses to homeless people but also free electricity connections to the houses, arranging sanitary latrines there, a nice kitchen room, interest-free microcredit for their livelihood.

‘We’re working so that every person can lead a decent life…. We work to build the fate of the country’s people,’ she said.

Earlier, the PM declared nine districts – Panchagarh, Magura, Madaripur, Gazipur, Narsingdi, Joypurhat, Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Chuadanga – as landless and homeless people-free districts on two occasions.

The PM has so far given houses to a total of 8,29,607 families under Ashrayan projects and other programmes. Some 4,148,035 people have been rehabilitated in the houses.

Of them, 2,778,085 people (of 555,617 families) have rehabilitated only under the Ashrayan project, run by the Prime Minister’s Office (since 1997 to July 2023).

PM’s principal secretary M Tofazzel Hossain Miah conducted the function.