Published on 03:35 PM, September 13, 2017

BNP appreciates PM’s Rohingya camp visit

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. File photo

BNP today appreciated Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for visiting Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar but strongly criticised her government for not adopting a motion in parliament condemning the ongoing genocide against ethnic community in Myanmar.

"We are happy that good sense has prevailed upon the Prime Minister even after 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 the party chief Khaleda Zia and her elder son Tarique Rahman.  

The government was silent when Indonesian foreign minister, Turkish foreign minister and its first lady visited Bangladesh over the Rohingya issue and the secretary general of the United Nations wrote to its security council 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 blasted the government for not allowing the Rohingya people to enter Bangladesh at the initial stage when Myanmar government started cleansing the ethnic community.   

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.

"But you (government) did not express condemnation to the genocide carried out in a bid to eliminate an ethnic community," Fakhrul said expressing strong condemnation to Myanmar for indulging in such atrocities.

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

"Please stay aside from such thinking and stand beside the Rohingya refugees for the betterment of the country," Fakhrul said.