Dhaka protests Myanmar claim

Dhaka has strongly protested Naypyidaw's allegations that terrorists recently attacked a police outpost in Myanmar from Bangladesh territory, terming those false.

"The government of Bangladesh is utterly disgruntled to notice some reports in Myanmar media based on irresponsible and false allegations by the officials of the General Administration Department of Myanmar implicating Bangladesh in a terrorist attack on a police post in Maungdaw Township near Boundary Pillar no 41 in the early hours of January 24, 2019," the foreign ministry said in a protest note.

The note was handed over to Myanmar Ambassador to Bangladesh U Lwin Oo, who was summoned by the ministry yesterday afternoon. M Delwar Hossain, director general of South East Asia Wing, called the envoy.

"The allegations are found to be absolutely fabricated and baseless," the DG told the ambassador, adding that there was neither any border crossing by any group from Bangladesh nor any incident of firing from the Bangladesh side towards any direction on that particular date.

The allegation is fabricated and highly derogatory to the reputation of Bangladesh, a country that persistently strives for peace and stability all over the world, said a foreign ministry statement. 

"As on previous occasions, differences in narratives of various media houses and government officials of Myanmar are clearly evident and it usually happens when stories are fabricated.

"Repetition of such serious and baseless allegations with varied versions could be construed as a deliberate attempt to malign Bangladesh and implicate a peace-loving country into the incessant internal conflicts of Myanmar," the statement added.

The Bangladesh government under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is firmly committed not to allow any dissident group to use its soil for any purpose. The high level of alertness and effective preventive measures by the law enforcing agencies of Bangladesh in line with "zero tolerance policy" of the government make it absolutely impossible to be present in the country or to launch any attack, the ministry said.

"We reaffirm that there is no existence of any terrorist group within Bangladesh. The security forces of Bangladesh alongside the border remain always vigilant and prepared to address any untoward incident that may affect peace and stability," the statement mentioned.

Bangladesh has taken all possible measures, including comprehensive international engagements in counter-terrorism, to fully implement its commitments. The country's comprehensive cooperation in counter-terrorism with some of the neighbouring countries proved to be highly effective and globally recognised.

Bangladesh has already proposed engaging in similar type of comprehensive bilateral cooperation mechanism with Myanmar to combat terrorism. The government of Bangladesh, on several instances, had proposed that the two countries conduct a joint operation in addressing terrorist activities along the border area.

"Myanmar is yet to respond to the proposal of Bangladesh," the statement said.

In this instance, it said Myanmar did not provide Bangladesh with specific details and concrete evidence on the alleged terrorist elements and their activities. Therefore, Bangladesh strongly protests such groundless and provocative accusations causing aspersions on Bangladesh.

"Bangladesh has urged the Myanmar government to take effective measures to prevent any attempt aiming at associating Bangladesh with the internal political and security conundrum of Myanmar," said the statement.

Bangladesh always stands ready to engage in comprehensive cooperation mechanism with any country, including Myanmar, in combating terrorism, it added.