Mamata vows to stand beside grieving Bangladesh
BY MPost5 July 2016 5:41 AM IST
MPost5 July 2016 5:41 AM IST
Banerjee stated that terrorists had no country or religion and the attack on innocent people should be condemned. She urged the legislators to work to maintain communal harmony in their area.
Criticizing BJP state president and MLA Dilip Ghosh, she said it was unfortunate that his party had taken out a rally demanding that Maitree Express be stopped. “I will ask Dilipbabu, why did you take out a rally demanding that Maitree Express should be stopped?”
Banerjee added that the train symbolised the friendship and understanding of two nations. “We are very close to Bangladesh. We speak the same language and share the same culture. We are not merely neighbours, we are very close friends and nothing should be done to disturb the friendship,” the Chief Minister maintained.
“We are a secular country and we believe in unity amid diversity and this ideal should be respected and upheld,” she said.
She urged the legislators to inform police if they found any suspicious people loitering in their areas. She said that after getting news of the tragic incident in Bangladesh, high level meetings were held and vigil at the Indo-Bangladesh border was intensified.
“Despite seven decades of Independence the border fencing is not yet complete and so vigil around the border was intensified.” She said authorities from the Ramakrishna Mission had approached her after one of their senior monks in Dhaka was threatened through email. Appropriate action was taken immediately. She said the fabric of communal harmony and peace should be maintained and coordinated efforts were required to consolidate the long cherished practice.
Meanwhile,Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday led the nation in paying homage to the 20 slain hostages, including an Indian, at a solemn ceremony here as the country mourned the victims of the worst terror attack on its soil.
Diplomats, politicians and people from across the different strata of society paid tributes and placed wreaths during the ceremony at the Bangladesh Army Stadium in Dhaka cantonment which drew a huge crowd despite drizzle.
Islamist militants hacked to death 20 hostages after they stormed a cafe popular with expatriates and diplomats in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone on Friday.
At the ceremony, the caskets, bearing the flags of India, Italy, Bangladesh, Japan and the US – signifying the nationalities of the foreigners killed – were placed on a raised platform. Hasina placed floral wreaths at the caskets of the victims.
Autopsy on the bodies had been conducted earlier at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka.
Of those killed, 18 were foreigners – Nine Italians, 7 Japanese, one American of Bangladeshi-origin and an Indian, 19-year-old Tarishi Jain, were among those killed. Two other Bangladeshis were also among the hostages slaughtered.
The bodies of two Bangladeshis and one Bangladeshi-born US citizen were handed over to the relatives for subsequent rituals and burial after the ceremony that was held on the second day of the two-day nationwide mourning declared in the country.
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