DHAKA:
Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina
has said that she was offered a
hassle-free re-election
in the
Jan 7 polls
if she allowed a
foreign country
to build an
air base
inside the country. Hasina, 76, secured a fifth overall term in the one-sided
in Jan, which was boycotted by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by former PM Khalida Zia.
"If I allowed a certain country to build an air base in Bangladesh, then I would have had no problem," Daily Star Bangladesh quoted Hasina as saying on Sunday.
She, however, did not name the country that had made the offer to her but emphasised that the "offer came from a White man".
"It may appear that it is aimed at only one country, but it is not. I know where else they intend to go," she said, adding that this is why her Awami League party-led govt is always in trouble. "There will be more trouble. But don't worry about it," she said.
When asked about her response to the offer, the PM said she made the same reply as she did in 2001 when the US offered to sell the country's gas to India. "I've clearly said that I'm the daughter of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. . . we won our Liberation War, I don't want to come to power by renting part of the country or handing it over to some other country and I don't need power," she said. The premier said she would only stay in office if the people wanted.
Hasina said she was fighting a battle everywhere, both at home and abroad, and the "conspiracies are still on" to carve a new country out of Bangladesh. "Like East Timor...they will carve out a Christian country, taking parts of Bangladesh (Chattogram) and Myanmar with a base in the Bay of Bengal," Hasina said without giving details. She said conspiracies were being hatched to topple her govt and that she might have to face the same consequences her father..., Daily Star reported. Rahman was assassinated 1975.
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