DHAKA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday cautioned against conspiracies by the anti-liberation forces to turn the country into a "failed state" but asserted that the plots by "Pakistan lovers" will never succeed.
The prime minister speaking at a discussion organised by the ruling Awami League (AL) to mark the 49th Victory Day when Bangladesh marks its liberation from Pakistan in 1971.
"The collaborators of the Pakistani occupation forces and those who still love Pakistan are out to foil Bangladesh's hard-earned independence and turn the country into a failed state.
But we won't allow their conspiracies to be successful," Hasina was quoted as saying by the official BSS news agency.
Hasina, also the AL president, said Bangladesh earned independence in exchange for blood of millions of martyrs.
"They joined the Liberation War responding to the call of Bangabandhu (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) and struggled throughout their life for this independence - their sacrifice cannot go in vain," Hasina, the daughter of Mujibur Rahman, said.
She said Bangladesh fought and won the Liberation War against Pakistan.
"Our goal was that we will remain above Pakistan anyhow on all sides including economic, social and cultural fronts. We truly stay there," she said.
She went on to say: "We are in a better position than everybody else. We must keep up this success." Hasina said wherever the Pakistan-lovers stay "in jail or abroad" their plots will be there.
"We will have to foil their conspiracies by remembering the words of the Father of the Nation (Mujibur Rahman) that none could suppress seven crore Bangalees - we are now 16 crore people." Bangladesh on Monday celebrated its 49th 'Victory Day' that marks its liberation from Pakistan.
On December 16, 1971, Lt. Gen. Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, heading 93,000 Pakistani troops, surrendered to the Indian Army under the command of Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora in Dhaka, and East Pakistan was declared as the newly liberated "Bangladesh".