Border at risk due to govt's passive role: BNP

BNP has alleged that Bangladesh's border security, independence and sovereignty have come under threat because of the current "unpopular" government's passive role in defusing tension along the Myanmar frontier.

In a statement issued today based on the decisions of the BNP standing committee's meeting held yesterday, the party said it feared that the country's border could become out of control at any time as hundreds of Myanmar nationals are waiting to illegally enter Bangladesh.

It said fierce fighting, skirmishes and gunfire between the armed forces of the military junta and insurgent groups inside Myanmar have taken a dire shape along the border between Bandarban's Naikhongchhari Ghumdhum and Tumbru for more than a week.

The party said bullets, mortar shells, and exploded rocket launcher shells exchanged by both Myanmar's armed forces and insurgent groups are falling inside Bangladesh every day, causing loss of life, injuries, and damage to people's homes.

"The locals are leaving the border area for the safety of their lives. Schools have been closed," it observed.

The BNP also condemned the deaths of two people -- a Bangladeshi woman and a Rohingya man -- who were killed when mortar shells from the Myanmar side landed on a kitchen at Jalpaitli village of Ghumdhum union in Naikhongchhari upazila of Bandarban yesterday.

Amid fierce fighting, it said more than a hundred members of the Border Guard Police (BGP) of Myanmar fled and took shelter in Bangladesh. "Hundreds of Myanmar nationals are crowding the border waiting to cross into Bangladesh, which could turn the border uncontrollable at any moment."

"The BNP standing committee expressed deep concern that the unelected Awami dummy government's empty speech and call for showing patience and exercising restraint instead of lodging strong protest and promptly dealing with the situation through effective political initiatives in this very dangerous situation for Bangladesh is an expression of knee-jerk foreign policy. A government without public support puts our border security and independence and sovereignty under a threat," the statement reads.

The party said the Awami League government is unable to take effective steps with the courage to tackle the prevailing situation along the border as it is "unelected and worthless".

"When our independence and sovereignty are threatened by another country and when our independence is vulnerable, Sheikh Hasina's dummy government is unable to do anything. This is because they have accepted the hegemony of others by holding people hostage at gunpoint," it observed.

It said the government has constantly demonstrated diplomatic failure over the Rohingya issue for years.