Dhaka Sunday, May 19, 2024

Why is BNP now vocal after long silence?
  • Staff Correspondent:
  • 2020-12-15 00:05:52

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has brought allegations against the Awami League government of diplomatic and political failures over solution to the Rohingya crisis.At a press conference in Dhaka on Monday, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir bitterly criticized the government's move to relocate Rohingya refugees to Bhasanchar, reports BBC.

Though the BNP gave statements at the beginning of the Rohingya crisis, the party had been silent for long. But it has started to talk again after relocation of a group of Rohingays to Bhashanchar.Mirza Fakhrul said, "Such move of the government will create barrier to the repatriation of Rohingya people to their homes in Myanmar." But Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has termed such allegations 'imaginary'. "

We think despite objections from international organizations including the United Nations, the move of relocating Rohingya people to Bhashanchar will create a new crisis," said Mirza Fakhrul.The government has failed to create pressure on Myanmar over the Rohingya issue by the international community, he opined.

BNP thinks Myanmar, on one hand, will get opportunity for such step and a distance will be created between the international community and Bangladesh, on the other. When asked why the party has now brought the issue to the front, several central leaders on condition of anonymity said, their party has taken a plan to highlight failures of the government in various cases.

As part of the plan, BNP is now giving statements regarding Rohingya issue, they added. They think seven international human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch (HRW) have urged the international community to stand against the authoritarian rule in Bangladesh. BNP sees the situation an opportunity to attract the attention of international community.

Professor Dilara Chowdhury, a political analyst, said that BNP has given statements over the Rohingya crisis as a target to present the failures of the government before people. BNP leader Mirza Fakhrul said they have talked about the issue so that the Rohingya crisis does not become a permanent problem for Bangladesh.Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen denies the allegations of diplomatic failures in this regard. He counterattacked BNP for not providing assistance in the Rohingya issue.

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