Online Desk: The government is committed to bring those, who have left the entire country in a terrible condition by looting public money, to justice, Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam said on Sunday.
“The top priority of the government is to ensure justice and accountability for those involved in anarchy in the last 15 years,” he told a press briefing at Foreign Service Academy.
Apart from holding trials for those involved in mass killing and enforced disappearances, the looters must be tried, he said.
“So, information and evidences will have to be collected to this end. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is being restructured for this purpose. I hope it will start process soon to bring these thefts to justice, Alam added.
He said the white paper preparation committee, formed by the interim government to examine the overall situation of the country’s economy, handed over its report to Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus on Sunday.
Eminent economist Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya worked as the head of the white paper preparation committee, he said, adding that after three months of investigation, their report was handed over to the chief adviser at a function at the Chief Adviser’s Office (CAO) here.
The press secretary said the committee was given a three-month period to prepare its report and the committee submitted the report accordingly.
In addition to finding the pictures of the looting money, he said, the committee members also accomplished a post-mortem on the story of development that was portrayed earlier. The looting was going on in front of the eyes of the country’s people, when many legitimised it.
“As a result, you have seen how many billions of dollars have been laundered,” the press secretary said adding that they got panicked after hearing the story of looting.
He said many politicians, bureaucrats and some businessmen in collusion with each other plundered the taxpayers’ money, the money of the poor people of Bangladesh.
“The picture of looting should be included in textbooks. Students of schools, colleges or universities should know this story,” Alam said quoting the chief adviser as saying at the function.
Prof Yunus termed the report of the white paper preparation committee a historical document.
Stating that the government is committed to bringing back the laundered money, Shafiqul Alam said, “We will bring back the laundered money. We have already started working with international organisations to this end”.
He commented that the people were silent about it even though the grand looting was going on.
Alam said the prime minister of the corrupt government told in a heroic tone that his peon is the owner of Taka 400 crore.
He said many issues will be updated and then the people of Bangladesh will get the overall picture of the corruption of Sheikh Hasina’s regime.
