DHAKA: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday said the National Security Intelligence (NSI) has got back its lost glory and earned confidence among common people.

The premier, also ruling Awami League president, came up with assertion while speaking in a program of laying foundation stone of NSI’s 20-storey headquarters in city’s Shegun Bagicha area on Saturday.

Sheikh Hasina said that the intelligence agency had lost its glory after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with his family members in 1975.

The PM as chief guest said that after assuming power in 1996, Awami League government took necessary initiatives to make the agency more professional.

Since then, NSI has got its lost glory back and earned confidence among common people, she added.

Sheikh Hasina also mentioned that from 1996 to 2001, the then AL government took several initiatives including infrastructural development, buying equipments and vehicles and providing training for the agency.

However, in 2001, after assuming power the BNP-Jamaat government halted all the programs which were taken by AL government.

Meanwhile, she said, the incumbent government has taken more necessary steps to increase the efficiency and development of NSI.

Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, PM’s Security Advisor Major General (retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique, NSI Director General (DG) Major General Shamsul Haque, among others, were present at the program.

At the outset of the program, one-minute silence was observed in remembrance of road mishap victim NSI member Abdus Sattar.

BDST: 1856 HRS, JAN 17, 2015