Fakhrul lauds Hasina for visiting Rohingya camp

BNP yesterday praised Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for visiting Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar.

“We are happy that good sense has prevailed upon the Prime Minister, although it has been late,” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said. 

He was addressing a programme at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, marking the 10th jail release day of party chief Khaleda Zia and her elder son Tarique Rahman. 

The government was silent when Indonesian foreign minister, Turkish first lady and foreign minister paid visits recently to Bangladesh over the Rohingya issue and when the secretary general of the United Nations wrote to the UN Security Council urging steps to stop the mass killing in Myanmar, he said.

“You [PM] went there [Cox's Bazar] when a UN team is coming to Bangladesh to visit the Rohingya refugee camps,” the BNP leader said.

Fakhrul also denounced the government for not allowing the Rohingya to enter Bangladesh at the initial stage when the Myanmar government started cleansing the ethnic community.  

He said that his party does not wish to do politics over the Rohingya issue, but rather, the Awami League wants to do so.

Everyone needs to speak up to resolve the Rohingya issue and discussions should take place, the BNP leader said.

“But we don't understand the government's position. The government yesterday in the parliament said pressure should be mounted on the Myanmar government to resolve the issue, but they didn't condemn the ongoing atrocities against ethnic communities in Myanmar. We strongly condemn [the atrocities] and are clearly saying that the genocide on Rohingya should be stopped immediately.”

The parliament last night adopted a resolution urging the United Nations and the world community to exert strong diplomatic pressures on Myanmar to take back Rohingyas, ensuring their safe accommodation and citizenship rights.

He slammed the AL government as it smells BNP's conspiracy behind the Rohingya crisis and speculates that BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and the party's senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman are instigating the atrocities.

“Please stay out of such thinking and stand beside the Rohingya refugees for the betterment of the country,” Fakhrul said.