Abu Dhabi: Bangladesh is committed to secularism and liberal forces are dominating the country now, Shaikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, told Gulf News in an exclusive interview yesterday evening in the capital.

“Since assuming power in 2009, my government initiated a ‘zero tolerance” stand’ against religious extremists and terrorists in the country and vowed to eliminate them totally. In last five and half years, we have achieved significant success in this regard,” she said.

Extremism has reduced considerably and liberal forces are dominating Bangladeshi society according to her. “Our army, police and paramilitary forces have done very well in containing extremism,” the Prime Minister said. She claimed Bangladesh is now almost free of terrorism.

Shaikh Hasina arrived in Abu Dhabi yesterday morning on an official visit to the UAE. She will meet a number of senior officials during her three-day visit.

The prime minister and her delegation were welcomed on arrival by Mariam Bint Mohammad Khalfan Al Roumi, Minister of Social Affairs, Saeed Bin Hajar Al Shehi, the UAE Ambassador to Bangladesh and other officials.

About her rival political party Jamaet-e-Islami, which is accused of holding an extremist religious ideology in the subcontinent, Hasina said the party has not been able to secure a mentionable political space in the subcontinent in the last sixty years or so. “I do not think they will ever be able to set their feet strongly here and become a security threat at all. If the leaders of South Asian countries remain united in their core objectives — eradicate poverty, provide food, shelter, health care, sanitation, education, employment and empowerment of the people, no internal and external forces can harm us,” the Prime Minister said.

On Pakistan’s battle against Taliban and other extremist forces, Hasina said: “I do not think the internal issues of Pakistan will have any bearing in the political situation of Bangladesh.”

Referring to reports of young men from the Indian subcontinent joining Daesh in Iraq and Syria, she said she was proud to say she had not heard of anyone from Bangladesh joining Daesh . “[Therefore] we do not consider them a security threat for Bangladesh.”

“I do not think Daesh is a major threat to anyone; even countries of the Middle East have enough resources to combat it. It’s a matter of time when this will be over. Our country is united in supporting Arab countries in combating these forces as and when needed,” she said.

Bangladesh believes in territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Iraq and Syria and wants to see a peaceful solution in those countries. Bangladesh would only be engaged in Syria and Iraq crisis in United Nation’s humanitarian assistance programmes only, she added.