BGB man's abduction 'shame' for country

BNP yesterday described the abduction of Border Guard Bangladesh's Nayek Abdur Razzak by Myanmar's border force as a "shame" for Bangladesh and demanded that the government sternly warn the neighbouring state to stop recurrences of such an incident.

“Publication of the photograph of a BGB member handcuffed and clad in lungi in a national daily of Myanmar has brought our heads down,” BNP spokesperson Asaduzzaman Ripon told a press briefing at the party's Nayapaltan central office.

Ripon demanded thatthe government immediately bring Abdur Razzak back through intense diplomatic efforts and enhance the efficiency and capability of the BGB.

Myanmar's Border Guard Police (BGP) opened fire on a BGB patrol boat in Teknaf of Cox's Bazar in the early hours of Wednesday. A BGB sepoy, Biplob Kumar, suffered bullet wounds in the shooting, while Nayek Abdur Razzak was abducted by the BGP.

At a meeting on Friday, Myanmar's immigration officials told BGB officials that they were waiting for the top authorities' decision regarding Razzak's release, said Maj Aminul Islam, additional director, BGB Battalion 17 in Cox's Bazar.

At the briefing, the BNP spokesman called upon the government to equip BGB professionally so that no foreign forces dare pick up them in such an insulting way or shoot them.

Expressing concern over high prices of essentials during Ramadan, Ripon alleged that prices were going up due a lack of government's monitoring of the market.