Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today urged the countrymen to stay alert against anti-liberation forces' return to power so Bangladesh remained as the country of freedom fighters.

"We got independence of the country in exchange for the blood of three million martyrs . . . this independence must not go in vain," she told a discussion on the occasion of the 48th Independence and the National Day, reports BSS.

Sheikh Hasina simultaneously sought countrymen's vigilance against those who were trying to stage a comeback upsetting the spirit of independence.

"Bangladesh will never be a country of anti-liberation forces, the militants or war criminals . . . it is to remain as a country of freedom fighters and those who believe in the spirit of independence," she said.

Awami League (AL) organized the discussion in Krishibid Institution auditorium where Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League president, said her party in government was building the country with the spirit of the independence.

The party's advisory council members Amir Hossain Amu and Tofail Ahmed, presidium members Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Engineer Mosharraf Hossain and Syed Ashraful Islam, organizing secretary AKM Enamul Haque Shamim, central committee member SM Kamal Hossain and president of its Dhaka North unit AKM Rahamatullah spoke on the occasion.

National University vice-chancellor Professor Harun-or-Rashid and dean of the Social Science Faculty of Dhaka University Professor Sadeka Halim addressed the discussion, moderated by AL publicity and publication secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud and deputy publicity and publication secretary Aminul Islam Amin.