Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina Thursday said the opposition is staging the anti-government movement to foil democracy, bring back the 1/11 and save the war criminals, reports BSS.

"The aim of the opposition's movement is to foil the hard-earned democracy, bring back the 1/11 and save the 1971 culprits. For this reason, they are burning people to death and vandalising and torching public property," she said.

Sheikh Hasina said the nation was not allowed to move forward as the anti- liberation forces ruled the country for 21 years after the assassination of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.

"The cohorts of the defeated forces never want Bangladesh becomes successful as an independent country. Rather they are busy taking revenge of the defeat," she said.

The PM added: "We are still witnessing their same character. We can understand if they stage movement in the public interest. But what is the real intention of their movement?"

The PM was addressing a discussion as the chief guest organised by Bangladesh Awami League (AL) on the occasion of the historic Homecoming Day of Bangabandhu at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city in the afternoon.

AL Presidium Members Abdul Latif Siddiqui, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim and Mohammad Nasim, AL Advisory Council Member Dr Anupam Sen, General Secretary Syed Asharaful Islam, Gano Azadi League President Alhaz Abdus Samad, Dhaka City AL Acting President MA Aziz and General Secretary Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya and Advocate Sanjida Khanam, spoke at the meeting, among others.

AL Publicity and Publication Secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud and Deputy Secretary Asim Kumar Ukil conducted the meeting, while AL's Cultural Affairs Secretary Asaduzzaman Noor,MP, recited poem.

On this day in 1972, Bangabandhu returned to independent Bangladesh after a nine-and-a-half-month confinement in Pakistan jail. The Pakistani occupation force arrested him on March 25, 1971 from his Dhanmondi residence.

The Pakistani junta was compelled to free Bangabandhu after Bangladesh earned independence on December 16, 1971.