Bangladesh won't allow soil for extremism: Sheikh Hasina to Narendra Modi

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said that she would not allow the soil of her country to be used for any kind of extremism and hoped that India would also reciprocate on the matter. After her first meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Hasina described the talks as "very good" and said she discussed various bilateral issues of mutual concern with him. "The meeting was very good. We are two friendly countries and we discussed various bilateral issues of mutual concerns," Hasina told reporters after coming out of an over 30-minute long bilateral meeting.

Asked whether she gave a dossier on Saradha scam as reported in the media, she said it was never on the agenda. On questions about extremism, Hasina said, "We are always against extremism. I have declared that I will not allow anybody to use our soil for any kind of extremism. We strongly fight the extremism and I hope that India will do the reciprocal." Earlier in the day, Hasina during her speech at the UN General Assembly said Bangladesh has reached "agreements with friendly countries such as India, China and Japan to develop large scale power plants to meet our growing demands by 2021." She also said that "terrorism and extremism remain major impediments to global peace and development.

"My Government maintains a 'zero-tolerance' policy to all forms of terrorism, violent extremism, radicalisation and religion-based politics. We remain firm in our resolve not to allow any terrorist individual or entity to use our territory against any state. "The anti-liberation forces continue to remain active in destroying the progressive and secular fabric of our nation. They resort to religious militancy and violent extremism in every opportunity.

"Under the direct patronage of the BNP-Jamaat Alliance Government from 2001 to 2006, they coalesced to form terrorist outfits, that perpetrated bomb and grenade attacks killing secular political leaders and activists. "These gruesome attacks cemented my resolve to create a strong legal and regulatory regime for countering terrorism including adoption of amended Anti-Terrorism Act 2013 and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2012," she added. Hasina also said that her government was "entrenching democracy, secularism and women empowerment to ideologically defeat terrorism and extremism. "We have also significantly enhanced transparency and accountability in governance by strengthening our Election, Anti-Corruption, Human Rights and Information Commission."