‘The Special Security Force (SSF) Bill, 2021’ has been placed in the Parliament with the provision of providing security to the family members of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and the very important persons of the country.
Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque placed the bill in the House on Friday (September 3).
The bill was sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry for further scrutiny. The parliamentary committee was asked to submit its report within 30 days.
The Cabinet on June 28 this year approved the draft SSF Bill. The proposed law would replace the ‘Special Security Force Ordinance 1986’, which was formulated during the military regime.
Sources said that the proposed law was drafted revising the existing one. Providing security to the family members of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and the very important persons have been included in the proposed law.
Once the law is passed, it will ensure security to the family members of Bangabandhu including his daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina even if she doesn’t hold office.
Bangabandhu’s family members means his two daughters, grandchildren, and in some cases, spouses or issues of the grandchildren. The very important persons defined by the government through gazettes, and the heads of foreign states or governments will be given security under the proposed law.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated along with most of his family members on August 15 in 1975. His daughters Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana were abroad at that time. Sheikh Hasina, however, narrowly escaped a gruesome grenade attack in 2004 while she was addressing a party rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital.
On May 25 in 2015, the government had issued a gazette ensuring lifelong foolproof state security everywhere in the country to the family members of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The move was taken in line with the Father of the Nation's Family Members Security Act, 2009.
