Chief of Army Staff General SM Shafiuddin Ahmed has said that the capabilities of the Bangladesh Army members increased significantly in the past two years as the force is moving towards modernization, despite facing obstacles due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Attending the closing ceremony of the Inter-Formation Assault Course competition at Ramu cantonment in Cox's Bazar on Thursday morning, he said the main responsibility of the force is to protect the motherland from external enemy attacks. For this, the army should always be ready to make the utmost sacrifice in any need.
General Shafiuddin said that the Bangladesh Army is the number one contributor to the UN peacekeeping missions. The Bangladesh Army had to sacrifice a lot, work hard and show a lot of skill to achieve this.
“No matter how many modern weapons we buy or how much digitization we do, if the people who operate them are not skilled, they will all fail. For that, we need hard training because the importance of army training is immense, and training is the best welfare. The army is advancing with this basic mantra.
“Out of all the army training, assault training is the toughest and the best suited for close combat. Assault training includes the physical exercises required in a combat strategy.”
The army chief said that after being suspended for two years due to the pandemic, the average training time had decreased compared to the previous record. “This means the army is much more efficient than before,” he added.
The award distribution and closing ceremony were held under the overall supervision of the Ramu 10 Infantry Division. The competition started on November 13, with the participation of some 16 large and small formation teams of the army.
In this competition, the 10 Infantry Division became champions and the 6 Individual ADA Brigade won the runner-up award. Moreover, Md Tapu Mollah, a soldier of Ramu Cantonment, won the honour of being the best competitor and Golam Rabbani, a soldier of the 10 Infantry Division, became second.
General Shafiuddin presented prizes among the winners at the event, which senior army officers also attended.
