Shawdesh Desk:

Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Saturday said that the moves to repatriate Rohingyas were not successful as the Awami League government had bowed down to Myanmar and was implementing its formula without considering the issues of the Rohingyas.
BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, at a briefing after the party standing committee meeting at the party chairperson’s office at Gulshan in Dhaka, said that the government ‘totally failed’ in repatriating the Rohingyas.

He also protested at and condemned the remarks of the prime minister, other AL leaders and a few media outlets implicating the party chairperson Khaleda Zia and acting chairman Tarique Rahman in the incident of August 21, 2004 grenade attack on AL rally at Capital’s Bangabandhu Avenue.

The BNP leader also informed that the party decided to go ahead with the legal battle for Khaleda’s release and that her health condition did not improve much following her treatment at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib University.

He demanded immediate release of Khaleda who was in jail since February 8, 2018, the day a special court in Dhaka convicted him in a graft case which the BNP claims to be false and fabricated.

On the issue of repatriation he said, ‘The government had failed to present the issue before international community properly and clearly. They also failed to get international support… The government, bowing down to Myanmar, is implementing their formula. That is why the move regarding Rohingya repatriation became fruitless.’
‘We think that the government had worked to fulfill Myanmar’s wish without ensuring the nationality of the Rohingyas as well as their security once they go back to their homeland,’ he said.

The BNP secretary general said that there should be an all-party dialogue on Rohingya issue through which ‘does and don’ts’ on the issue would come out.

Besides, he said, the head of the Bangladesh government should have visited the countries that stood in alignment with Myanmar on Rohingya issue. ‘So far, neither the head of the government nor any of her representatives visited any country to discuss the issue,’ he added.

On August 22, none of the 295 Rohingya families the authorities interviewed for repatriation showed up for going back to Rakhine in Myanmar they left nearly two years ago amid state-sponsored atrocities since August 25, 2017.

The first attempt for repatriation had failed on November 15, 2018 as none expressed their intent to go back to Rakhine.
The latest Rohingya influx took the number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees from that country in Bangladesh to about 11,16,000, according to estimates by UN agencies and Bangladesh foreign ministry.

‘We condemn and protest against the prime minister’s comment on August 21 grenade attack and campaign on a few newspapers implicating BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman. We urge them to refrain from such falsehood,’ Fakhrul said.

He argued that Tarique was implicated after AL government came to power and after a ‘special retired police officer’ who was brought back to police force was appointed investigation officer of the case.

‘The prime accused in the case, Mufti Hannan, was taken under remand since long time ago and was tortured and forced to include the name Tarique Rahman in his statement under section 164,’ he said, adding that the court did not accept Mufti Hannan’s affidavit to withdraw his statement.

‘It cannot be expected that a political leader was implicated in a case only as part of political vengeance,’ he said.

He said that Mufti Hannan was arrested during the BNP-led government and was questioned why AL did not cooperate with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation members who came to Dhaka to probe the grenade attack.