Keep close watch on children: Sheikh Hasina to parents

DHAKA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today asked parents and authorities to remain vigilant about the movement of children to prevent them from getting radicalised.

"The people of the country are pious, but not bigots. I simply cannot understand why the children of these pious people, who are receiving education from reputed institutions, good schools and colleges and English medium ones, are turning bigots," she said.

Her appeal came after it emerged that most of the hostage-takers in the July 1 Dhaka cafe attack, the worst in Bangladesh, had vanished several months ago.

Twenty two people, including an Indian girl, were killed last week after suspected Islamic State terrorists stormed the cafe in the diplomatic zone in Dhaka.

Days later, Islamist militants carrying bombs and machetes launched a deadly attack on Bangladesh's biggest Eid gathering, killing four persons.

Hasina said it needs to be find out how the culprits are misguiding meritorious students. "We don't want these students to lay down their valuable lives indiscriminately getting derailed from the right path," she said.

"We must get rid of this situation. We will have to take our country to the path of development. We must accelerate our socioeconomic development. And I believe we can get rid of this situation," Hasina said.

Reiterating her resolve not to allow the emergence of militancy in the country, the prime minister said the government does not want any recurrence of the incidents happened recently.

"We won't allow any sort of emergence of militancy in the country, we don't want Bangladesh to be the land of militancy...we'll have to take some measurers keeping this view in mind," she asserted.

She said some unwarranted incidents have taken place in Bangladesh and it has to be dealt with strong hands.