“Devise the strategy through discussion to foster the country’s development so we can take the country forward towards prosperity,” she said while addressing as the chief guest the 61st convention of the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB).

IEB Dhaka Centre organised the programme with the main theme “Engineering and Technology for Smart Bangladesh” on IEB headquarters premises here.

The prime minister asked the engineers to take environment friendly plans to protect Bangladesh from the adverse impact of the climate change.

“We should keep in mind that we always have to face drought, flood and flow-tide,” she said.

She also called upon the engineers to take sustainable, cost-effective and suitable plans to benefit the country and its people.

“We have to take plans in such a way from which the people will get benefit, the country will get return or income and off- course, the plans will be suitable for Bangladesh,” she added.

The premier called for not taking any plan for “only the purpose of construction and commission”.

“I will not approve if any such plan comes to me. I will only take into consideration the benefit of the country and its people,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina reiterated her cal to the engineers not to take any such plan for development which requires filling water bodies such haor, beel and ponds.

“If necessary, we will build expressway. The vehicles will ply the expressway while vessels under the expressway,” she said.

Recalling the engineers’ contribution to the country’s development, she said her government will consider the logical demands of engineers after scrutiny.

The prime minister also handed over awards including gold medal and certificates to different levels of engineers, centre, sub-centre, engineering division and graduates of AMIE examination.
IEB President Eng Md Abdus Sabur, its General Secretary Eng SM Monjurul Haque Monju and IEB Dhaka Centre Chairman Eng Mohammad Hossain and its General Secretary Eng Md Nazrul Islam, also spoke at the function.

An audio-visual presentation on the contribution of the engineers to country’s development as well as protection of its environment was screened as theme song marking the IEB’s 61st convention was played at the function.

Sheikh Hasina stressed more research in agriculture saying her government is set to completely mechanise the agricultural sector to get its production three times higher.

“Conduct research on how to develop agricultural machineries at low cost,” she said.

She reminded all that her government has ensured food security by increasing production through research.

The prime minister said the country has been able to produce 28000mw of electricity and has set a target to increase to 60,000mw by 2041.

“We are ensuring multifaceted electricity generation by installing solar, wind, coal, gas, oil and hydro based power plants. More research is required to this end,” she said.

She called upon the engineers to focus research to maximise use of their talents and merits for the cause of country’s development.

“I want you to give special attention to research,” she added.

The prime minister said her government is providing houses to the landless and homeless people across the country free of cost aimed at giving all their address.

“None will remain homeless in Bangladesh,” she reiterated.

Sheikh Hasina said her government has been building flats for slum dwellers as well.

She asked the engineers to draw plans on how to make houses and flats more living friendly at lower cost.

“We’re doing every job focusing on changing the fate of the grassroots people. Do your duties keeping that in mind,” she said.

The prime minister called engineers as main driving force of transforming Bangladesh into a developed, prosperous and Smart Bangladesh by 2041, which means, it will have smart population, smart government, smart economy and smart society.

“We have been working to turn Bangladesh into a developed, prosperous and Smart Bangladesh by 2041. You (engineers) are the main driving force to materialize the vision,” she said.

She came down heavily on the critics of the country’s development.

“There are some people who criticise everything without any reason. We don’t care who says what as we are committed to working for the welfare of the country and its people,” she said.

The prime minister said the BNP and its like-minded governments did nothing for the welfare of the people.

In this regard, she said the per capita income increased by just six US dollars till 1996 after 1975 changeover.

Earlier, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman increased per capita income to $277 from $97, she said.

The premier said her government has been able to realize the recognition of a developing nation for Bangladesh in 2021 by conducting massive development works while the BNP did nothing for the country’s advancement.

Israel’s main international ally said it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel has used weapons in ways inconsistent with international humanitarian law during the seven-month war, but said it could not reach “conclusive findings” and stopped short of blocking shipments.

Relations between the two allies sunk earlier in the week after US President Joe Biden threatened to halt some arms deliveries if Israel went ahead with a full-scale assault on Rafah threatened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The US has warned that the reputational damage Israel will suffer if it storms a city where an estimated 1.4 million civilians are sheltering will far outweigh any possible military gain.

UN chief Antonio Guterres said Friday that Gaza risked an “epic humanitarian disaster” if Israel launched a full-scale ground operation in Rafah, while France urged Israel to cease its operations in Rafah “without delay”.

The Israeli premier has said repeatedly that Israel cannot defeat Hamas and eliminate any possibility of the militant group repeating its bloody October 7 attack without sending ground troops into Rafah in search of remaining Hamas fighters.

Netanyahu struck a defiant tone on Thursday, vowing: “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone.”

The White House renewed its opposition Friday but said it saw no major operation yet against the city.

“We’re obviously watching it with concern, of course, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say what we’ve seen here in the last 24 hours connotes or indicates a broad, large (or) major ground operation,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Earlier this week, Israeli ground troops seized eastern areas of the city, including the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, but they have yet to enter its main built-up area.

AFP journalists witnessed artillery strikes on the city Friday and the Israeli army said operations were continuing in the east of the city.

The war began with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,943 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

– Displaced again –

Israel’s military operations around Rafah have already had a severe impact on Gaza civilians, UN agencies said.

More than 100,000 people, many of them already displaced from other areas of Gaza, have fled Rafah this week, the United Nations said.

Many have returned to the city of Khan Yunis, where intense fighting raged earlier this year, or are crowded into shelters along the coast in the central town of Deir al-Balah.

Displaced civilian Malek al-Zaza said he had found “no food” and “no water” in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.

“No one is asking about us, no one is looking for us… We only have God looking out for us,” he said.

The Rafah crossing, which Israeli troops closed on Tuesday, is the only one normally used for deliveries of fuel, and the United Nations said the resulting exhaustion of stocks inside Gaza had effectively halted aid agency operations.

COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, said it had delivered 200,000 litres of fuel to Gaza on Friday using a different crossing.

That is the quantity the United Nations says is needed every day to keep aid trucks moving and hospital generators working.

The Israeli army said four soldiers were killed on Friday when an “explosive device” went off near a school in Gaza City.

The deaths took to 271 the Israeli military’s losses in the Gaza campaign since the start of its ground offensive on October 27.

The army said rocket fire from Gaza had wounded an Israeli civilian in the southern city of Beersheba. It was the first time since December that the city had come under Palestinian rocket attack.

– Back to ‘square one’ –

Israeli and Hamas negotiating teams left Cairo on Thursday after what Egypt called a “two-day round” of indirect negotiations on the terms of a Gaza truce.

Hamas said that Israel’s rejection of a truce plan submitted by mediators at the talks had sent the negotiations back to “square one”.

In New York, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Friday in support of a Palestinian bid for full membership of the world body, a symbolic move after the United States vetoed the measure in the Security Council.

The resolution, which states that the Palestinians should be admitted to the UN and grants them some additional rights as observers, received 143 votes for, nine against and 25 abstentions.

The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority said the UN vote showed Palestine “deserves full membership”.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said it sent the message to Hamas that “violence pays off”.

Richard Gowan, an analyst with Brussels-based think tank the International Crisis Group, said the resolution sent “a very clear signal to Israel and the US that it is time to take Palestinian statehood seriously”.

Leader Kim Jong Un on Friday oversaw a live-fire test of the “technically updated” rocket system, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

The announcement comes as analysts say the nuclear-armed North could be testing and ramping up production of artillery and cruise missiles before sending them to Russia for use in Ukraine.

Pyongyang in February said it had developed a new control system for its 240mm multiple rocket launcher that would lead to a “qualitative change” in its defence capabilities, and last month executed a test-firing of new shells.

The updated rocket launcher will be “deployed to units of the Korean People’s Army as replacement equipment from 2024 to 2026”, KCNA said Saturday.

South Korea’s defence ministry told AFP it could not confirm the Friday test launches.

But Pyongyang said eight shells had “hit point target to intensively prove the advantage and destructive power of the updated 240mm multiple rocket launcher system”.

Images released by state media showed leader Kim conversing with military officials during an inspection of the launcher, as well as what appeared to be the live-fire test of the system.

The tests also proved the power of the “controllable shells for (the) multiple rocket launcher”, it added.

The largely isolated country has recently bolstered military ties with Russia, and Pyongyang thanked Moscow last month for using its UN Security Council veto to block the renewal of a panel of UN experts that monitored international weapons sanctions on Kim’s regime.

South Korea and the United States have accused North Korea of supplying weapons to Russia, despite UN sanctions banning such a move.

KCNA said Saturday that Kim discussed ways to raise production of the new rocket launcher system and shells to “the highest level”.

It also said a “significant change will be soon made in increasing the artillery combat ability of our army”, without providing details.

Inter-Korean relations are at one of their lowest points in years, with Pyongyang declaring South Korea its “principal enemy”. It has jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and threatened war over “even 0.001 mm” of territorial infringement.

While escalating its military threats towards South Korea, the North is “also signaling its intentions to participate in weapons exports and other defense-related economic activities via ongoing technical advancements,” said Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

In the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Pyongyang has “indirectly verified the performance of its existing weapons” by supplying them to Russia, he told AFP.

“Today, if all the Muslim countries worked together making an alliance, it would have been easier to attain better position for the Muslims including reducing misery of the Palestinians,” she said.

The premier inaugurated the Hajj programme at a function at the Hajj Camp in city’s Ashkuna area as the chief guest.

“We could have further advanced if Muslim countries of the world worked unitedly,” she said as she mentioned herself “the only sister” (head of government) among the OIC member countries.

Sheikh Hasina said, “I told them (head of states and governments) that I am the only sister. I am asking everyone to reach a consensus and speak up so this kind of unfair injustice doesn’t happen to us again.”

Highlighting the miseries of the Muslims in Palestine, she said genocide is being carried out there where no children, women or men were spared.

“But, I am protesting it wherever I get a chance. . . .Palestine will get more land in Gaza. It is their right. No one can take away this right. So, that right should be given to them,” she said.

The premier also urged the Hajj pilgrims to pray for them.

Describing Islam as a religion of peace, Sheikh Hasina called for not doing anything that goes against the religious sentiment.

“No one should do anything – like engaging in alcohol addiction, gambling, corruption, terrorism and militancy — that hurts our religious sentiment,” she said.

She also said Islam is a sacred religion that ensured the rights of the people of all classes.

“It is very unfortunate that a quarter of people earn a bad name for Islam by militancy. I always protest it,” she added.

Sheikh Hasina said the people of all religions would continuously enjoy equal rights to follow their respective religious rituals in the country.

She also asked the Hajj pilgrims to pray for Bangladesh and its people while performing the holy hajj, saying, “Pray for Bangladesh, pray for the people of Bangladesh, and also pray for the Muslim Ummah all over the world.”

Referring to the implementation of e-Hajj management, the premier said, “We have made Digital Bangladesh. Our future goal is to build a ‘smart Bangladesh'”.

“After making Smart Bangladesh, no one have to suffer with anything. Just get on the plane and leave (for destination) by doing all the work at home. We are doing that kind of arrangement,” she added.

Sheikh Hasina said they take measures to improve Hajj management every time and the Saudi government is always supporting to Bangladesh in this work.

She extended her thanks to the Saudi government, especially the king and the prime minister, because they have always solved the problems on Hajj.

The prime minister said her government is constructing a model mosque in every upazila where training will be given to Hajjis and their service providers about Hajj and service.

In addition, all information about Hajj, its registration and other management will be made available in these mosques, she said.

“So there will not be much need to stay in Hajj camp. You can do everything at home. Everything will become easier. We are making that arrangement,” she added.

The premier also exchanged greetings with the (Hajji) Hajj pilgrims after opening the Hajj programme.

The hajj flight carrying Bangladeshi pilgrims will start from Dhaka tomorrow.

The first hajj flight (BG-3301) is scheduled to leave Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 7:20am for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, carrying 419 pilgrims.

With Religious Affairs Minister Md. Faridul Haque Khan in the chair, Secretary of the Ministry Md A Hamid Zamadder delivered the welcome address at the Hajj programme opening function.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Muhammad Faruk Khan, Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Atiqul Islam, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Religious Affairs Mohammad Huchamuddin Chowdhury, Saudi Arabia Ambassador to Bangladesh Essa Youssef Essa Al Duhailan, and Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB) President M Shahadat Hossain Taslim also spoke.

Two pilgrims, as well, expressed their feelings and satisfaction over the Hajj management, and lauded Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for digitisation of Hajj activities.

An audio-visual documentary on Hajj activities was screened on the ceremony.

Bangladesh is the fourth largest pilgrims sending country in the world. As per the arrangement, Bangladeshi pilgrims will complete immigration process of the two countries (Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia) in Dhaka which will help them escape immigration process in Jeddah.

Under Road-to-Makkhah initiative, hajj pilgrims will get luggage services, meaning the luggage will be sent to the pilgrims’ hotel or their other accommodation in Makkah and Madinah.

According to the flight schedule, the national flag carrier will operate 117 pre-hajj flights between May 9 and June 10 to carry a total of 45,525 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia while Saudi Arabian airlines Flynas will operate 43 pre-hajj flights between May and June 12 to carry rest of the pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.

Biman Bangladesh Airlines is scheduled to start operating return hajj flight on June 20 from Saudi Arabia to Bangladesh while Flynas will start post-hajj flight between Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh on June 21.

“We have paused one shipment of weapons last week. It consists of 1,800 2,000-lb (907 kg) bombs and 1,700 500-lb (226 kg) bombs,” the senior official in President Joe Biden’s administration said on condition of anonymity.

“We have not made a final determination on how to proceed with this shipment,” the official added.

Biden’s administration made the decision when it appeared Israel was on the verge of a major ground operation into Rafah, which Washington has strongly opposed.

Israeli and US officials had been discussing alternatives but “those discussions are ongoing and have not fully addressed our concerns,” the senior US official said.

“As Israeli leaders seemed to approach a decision point on such an operation, we began to carefully review proposed transfers of particular weapons to Israel that might be used in Rafah. This began in April.”

The US official said Washington was “especially focused” on the use of the heaviest 2,000-lb bombs “and the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza.”

The US State Department is still reviewing other weapons transfers, including the use of precision bomb kits known as JDAMs, added the official.

Israel sent tanks into Rafah on Tuesday and seized the border crossing with Egypt but the White House said earlier that Israel had promised it was a “limited operation.”

“Keep in mind the needs of the people and work to fulfill their expectations accordingly,” Prime Minister’s Deputy Press Secretary KM Shakhawat Moon quoted her as saying at the oath taking ceremony at her office.

In a media briefing Moon said the prime minister also emphasized coordination in the local level to accomplish responsibility.

Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Md. Tazul Islam and PM’s Principal Secretary M Tofazzel Hossain Miah were present at the oath taking ceremony at the PMO.

Local Government Division Secretary Muhammad Ibrahim conducted the function.

Abu Bakar Siddique Shyamol won the Lalmonirhat Zilla Parishad Chairman by-election held on April 3.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that “surrendering” to a demand to end the war would amount to defeat, while Qatar-based Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh accused Netanyahu of sabotaging the talks.

Negotiations were due to continue Monday in Qatar, where CIA director Bill Burns was expected for “emergency” talks on mediation efforts with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, a source with knowledge of the discussions told AFP.

A Hamas official said Sunday the group’s delegation for Gaza truce talks was headed to Doha for “consultations” after the last round of talks in Cairo failed to produce a breakthrough.

Hamas negotiators are then due back in Cairo on Tuesday, said Al-Qahera News, a site linked to Egyptian intelligence services.

In Rafah in southern Gaza, where about 1.2 million Palestinians have sought shelter, medics and first responders said 16 people were killed Sunday in Israeli air strikes, hours after Hamas rockets had killed three Israeli soldiers.

Residents of the southern Gaza city told AFP they feared an upsurge in violence if truce talks collapse.

Naja Shaat, 59, said she was “extremely joyful” when she thought a ceasefire was imminent, “but today… we are on pins and needles”.

Gaza’s bloodiest-ever war began following Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Hamas also seized some 250 hostages.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,683 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

– ‘Lost hope’ –

The Palestinian civilian toll has strained ties between Israel and its main military supplier and ally the United States.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that “the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas”.

Negotiators met in Cairo Sunday without an Israeli delegation present.

Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators had proposed a 40-day pause in the fighting and an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, according to details released by Britain.

Any truce reached would be the first since a week-long November ceasefire saw a hostage-prisoner swap.

Netanyahu, whose coalition includes ultra-nationalist parties, faces regular protests demanding a deal to bring the hostages home.

Demonstrators, some carrying posters with images of the captives, gathered in Tel Aviv on Sunday, as Israel marked national Holocaust Remembrance Day.

According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, he told his cabinet Israel would not let Hamas “take control of Gaza again, rebuild their military infrastructure and return to threaten the citizens of Israel”.

“Israel will not agree to Hamas’s demands, which mean surrender, and will continue the fighting until all its goals are achieved,” he added.

Haniyeh said Netanyahu wanted to “invent constant justifications for the continuation of aggression, expanding the circle of conflict, and sabotaging efforts made through various mediators and parties”.

– ‘Expect an escalation’ –

Previous negotiation efforts had stalled in part because of Hamas’s demand for a lasting ceasefire and Netanyahu’s vows to crush its remaining fighters in Rafah.

Hamas in a statement insisted it maintained a “positive and responsible approach” and said it was determined to reach an agreement.

The statement mentioned that Hamas’s key demands include “a complete end” to the fighting, Israeli withdrawal “from the entire Gaza Strip, the facilitation of the return of displaced people, the intensification of relief efforts”, reconstruction efforts and a prisoner-hostage exchange deal.

Netanyahu has vowed to invade Rafah regardless of any truce, and despite concerns from the United States, other countries and aid groups.

At the start of the war, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said his country would impose a “complete siege” blocking food, water and other supplies.

Continuous appeals for greater access have, according to the UN, led to some improvements recently.

Israel in December reopened the southern Kerem Shalom border crossing for aid, but on Sunday the army said it was targeted with projectiles and “closed to the passage of humanitarian aid trucks”.

Hamas’s armed wing claimed the rocket fire, saying Hamas had targeted troops.

The army later announced three soldiers were killed in the attack and 12 were wounded, three seriously.

An AFP correspondent and witnesses reported shelling and gunfire in Gaza City Sunday, and helicopter fire in central and southern Gaza. The Israeli military later said it struck a Hamas “command and control position” in central Gaza.

Arwa Saqr, displaced from the southern city of Khan Yunis, said she has “lost hope that the negotiations will succeed”.

In Rafah, where the army said the rockets were launched from, 35-year-old Mohammed Al-Najjar said: “I expect an escalation.”

– Al Jazeera –

Netanyahu on Sunday also announced a government decision to close operations in Israel of Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera, which has broadcast round-the-clock coverage of the conflict.

It went off-air a short time later.

The network condemned Israel’s decision as a “criminal act”, and said it would take legal action.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which has been central to humanitarian operations in Gaza during the war, said Sunday that Israeli authorities had barred him from entering Gaza for a second time since the war began.

In a post on X, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini also called for an “independent investigation” into the rockets fired at Kerem Shalom. Israel estimates 128 hostages abducted on October 7 remain in Gaza, including 35 who the military says are dead.

On Sunday the Hostages and Missing Families Forum appealed to Netanyahu, telling him in a statement to “disregard all political pressure”, with some far-right members of the government opposing a truce and calling for fighting to continue.

“Much of the country including Dhaka city experienced significant rainfall with thunderstorms last night bringing downs mercury as Bangladesh has been facing longer and intense heatwave since April 1,” Omar Faruq, meteorologist of Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) told BSS this morning.

Dhaka city and its adjacent districts recorded a significant amount of rainfall, he said adding, “Dhaka recorded 36mm rainfall while 31 mm
rains were recorded in Narayanganj, 32mm in Kishorganj, 12mm in Tangail.”

The country’s highest rainfall was recorded in Srimangal with 124mm while 37mm Patenga and 62mm at Rangamati, Faruq said adding different regions including Chattogram and Barishal division witnessed much welcome rains with thunderstorms.

Extreme heat has blasted two divisions – – Khulna and Rajshahi since at the beginning of April but these divisions did not receive rainfall till now this summer, the BMD meteorologist adding Rangpur division received very insignificant rainfall last night.

“Bangladesh is likely to witness heavy to very heavy rainfall with thunderstorms from today and it will continue throughout the month,” BMD meteorologist Dr Abul Kalam Mallik said.

He said as rainfall with thunderstorm will continue hoping to bid farewell the sweltering heatwave that battered the country forcing school closure and staying the people indoors claiming 15 deaths linked to heatstroke.

Northeastern, central parts including Sylhet division and some parts of Mymensingh and Dhaka division are likely to experience heavy to very
heavy rainfall between May 6 and 11 simultaneously south-western and north-western regions will witness rainfall with thunderstorms, he added.

Mallik suggested avoiding to stay outdoors during the hailstorm as intensity of hailstorms is increasing accompanied with frequent lightning impacted by climate change, which are largely responsible for casualties.

The meteorologist attributed uncomfortable feelings of unbearable hot- weather to high humidity persisting in the air during the afternoon and
evening period suggesting avoiding movement between 12 noon to 4pm as the sunlight is getting too hot as it (the Sun) provides sunlight vertically
with intense heat.

“Normally we record temperature from the air,” Mallik said the highest temperature was found between 12 noon and 4pm because of vertical position of the Sun.

Analyzing humidity indexes, Mallik continued, “There is a close relation of temperature and humidity . . . discomfort feelings will increase, if high humidity persists in the air with high temperature. “Although temperature decreases after 4pm, but we feel very hot weather due to high humidity,” he added.

The Met Office today recorded 39.5 degree Celsius at Rajshahi while the temperature in Dhaka was recorded at 36.9 degrees Celsius but the high humidity has exposed the residents to massive discomfort.

The BMD official said the country witnessed the longest duration of the heatwave for the past 33 days since April 1 and the met office warned the
phenomenon would continue throughout the next month.

“But unlike the previous heatwaves, this year it spread all over the country,” commented meteorologist Abul Kalam Mollik, who was supported by Zebunnesa as well.

Visibly for the first time the meteorologists acknowledged that the climate change phenomenon caused the erratic weather pattern with gradually
expanding areas of heatwave, joining the voice with the climate experts and activists.

“Maximum temperature in the country started falling on average one or two degrees Celsius from May, the Met Office said predicting temperature may
dip more from today as almost all parts of the country may witness much awaited rainfall, ” Md Omar Faruq, a meteorologist of Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) said.

Large swaths of Khulna and Rajshahi division are sweltering through a heatwave as the Met office logged highest temperature above 40 degree
Celsius in most stations located in the two divisions since April 1, Omar said predicting rains are likely to occur in different areas of the two division.

“Our armed forces stand by the people in their any tough time and they have been able to gain people’s trust today,” she said while addressing the “Prime Minister’s Darbar” at the Dhaka Cantonment.

Sheikh Hasina joined the Darbar after inaugurating the newly constructed multi-storied Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) Bhaban and Senaprangan (Army Central Auditorium) Bhaban in the Dhaka Cantonment by unveiling their name plaques at a ceremony.

The premier said the people lost their trust and faith in the army after August 15, 1975.

“My effort was to restore people’s trust in our army,” she said, mentioning that people’s faith is absolutely essential for army to protect independence and sovereignty of the country.

She suggested that an army that failed to earn people’s trust can never win any battle.

The prime minister reiterated that, “Our army today stands by the people and gained the trust and confidence of the people.”

She said her government is implementing the “Forces Goal-2030” based on the Defense Policy formulated by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1974 for the armed forces.

“By implementing the Forces Goal, we want our armed forces to be equipped with modern knowledge,” she added.

Referring to the Awami League’s manifesto pledging to build a digital Bangladesh in 2008 election, she said, “We’re working to develop our armed forces with modern technological knowledge in that way.”

The head of the government said the Bangladesh armed forces are widely acclaimed in the world for their outstanding contribution to the United Nations Peacekeeping missions.

Now, her government’s goal is to brighten the image of the armed forces further, she added.

The 14-storey AFIP Bhaban is equipped with the modern laboratory where the latest technology like next generation sequencing, automated microbial identification system, transmission electron microscope and multi-headed microscope were installed to ensure international standard services.

The army central auditorium, Senaprangan, has been constructed for organizing various national and international-level events like important meetings, seminars and social events.

The prime minister also planted a sapling (Chatiyan) on the premises of Army Central Auditorium.

She also entered AFIP Bhaban by cutting a ribbon and visited different facilities installed there.

AFIP Commandant Major General Dr Nishat Jubaida apprised the premier of the main features and facilities of the new Bhaban.

In 2019, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the project titled “Extension and Modernization of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP)” to fulfill the growing demand of pathology services.

The project is implemented before the stipulated time of December 2024.

The 14-storey AFIP Bhaban is equipped with the modern laboratory where the latest technology like next generation sequencing, automated microbial identification system, transmission electron microscope and multi-headed microscope were installed to ensure international standard services.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Prof Dr Samanta Lal Sen, Chief of Army Staff General SM Shafiuddin Ahmed and Chief of Naval Staff Admiral M Nazmul Hassan, among others, were present.

Then, the prime minister inaugurated Senaprangan Bhaban and entered the new Bhaban by cutting a ribbon as well.

The army central auditorium, Senaprangan, has been constructed for organizing various national and international-level events like important meetings, seminars and social events.

Chief of Army Staff General SM Shafiuddin Ahmed and high level army officers were present.