Pakistan is sunk in the poison of communal milieu, Bangladesh is totally free from that danger and that's why the country (Bangladesh) is now a role model for many developing nations, Bangladesh Information Minister Hasan Mahmud said here.

"Bangladesh is now heading in many indices because the country is entirely free from communal hatred and environment. Pakistan is deply sunk in the poison of communal settings, that's why it lagging behind," Mahmud said here on Sunday night after inaugurating the first three-day film festival.

The Bangladesh Minister said that there was a rigorous effort to break the secular ethos of the country specially after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibar Rahaman in August 1975 and that destructive faction was partly successful, but we could restore the secular guiding principle under the able leadership of present Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

"Four years after the country attained independence from Pakistan, "Bangabandhu" (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) was eliminated to destroy the humanity and a secular nation.

People belonging to different religions like Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Buddhists had contributed to the liberation war," the minister said.

"Returning to Dhaka, I would ask the concerned policy making bodies and inform the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to further develop the roads and border infrastructure along India-Bangladesh frontiers", Mahmud said.

In the three-day film festival, 20 films made with India-Bangladesh joint initiatives and movies on Bangladesh liberation war would be screened.

The minister, who was accompanied by many intellectuals, parliamentarians, senior officials, artists, said that around 15 lakh Bangladeshi refugees, a number larger than the state's then population, had taken shelter in Tripura during the nine month long liberastion war in 1971.

Tripura Tourism and Transport Minister Pranajit Singh Roy said that if the Bangladesh government did not help India, the turbines and heavy machineries for the 726 MW gas based power project in southern Tripura could not be transported to the northeastern state from other parts of India via Bangladesh.

"India-Bangladesh connectivity with the northeastern states would soon be further developing after the completion of the 12.23 km Agartala-Akaura railway project being built at the cost of Rs 972 crore and construction of a big bridge in southern Tripura over river Feni. Both important projects likely to be completed in early next year," Singh Roy said.

An official of Bangladesh Assistant High Commission here said that before leaving here for Dhaka on Tuesday, Mahmud will hold a meeting with Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and likely to discuss various under construction and on-going projects between the northeastern state and Bangladesh.