BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi today (3 December) urged the interim government to seek assistance from the UN peacekeeping force to ensure the security for the staff of Bangladesh’s diplomatic missions in India as they failed to provide security for them.
“The officials and employees of the Bangladesh missions are suffering from a sense of insecurity. In this situation, the Bangladesh government should seek assistance from the UN peacekeeping force and take measures for the security of our people there,” he said at a press conference in the BNP central office in Nayapaltan.
Rizvi said being instigated by the BJP government, the “extremist terrorists” carried out the brutal attack on the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission in Kunjaban, Agartala amid the silent presence of the members of the law enforcement agencies.
They tore down the national flag, set it on fire, vandalised the flagpole and damaged the property inside the assistant high commission, he said.
“This unprecedented attack on the diplomatic mission in Agartala is a clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961,” said the BNP leader.
Though the Indian government staged the drama to express regret for the attack, the instances of aggressive interference India did in Bangladesh’s internal affairs in the past created further resentment (in Bangladesh), he added.
“We would like to tell the extremist Hindus of India, your friendship is with Sheikh Hasina. The open hostility you have shown against the people of Bangladesh to protect that friendship is not a good neighbourly behavior,” he added.
Rizvi said their [Indians’] friend Hasina got shelter there in India after killing thousands of people [in Bangladesh].
“Be satisfied with her [giving her shelter]. Remember, Bangladesh became independent at the cost of millions of lives, not to be a slave to Delhi. The slave who wanted to be a servant is now on your feet,” he said.
The BNP leader claimed that the Indian BJP government and extremists have gone madder than Hasina after she lost power and was ousted. They are desperately spreading propaganda, he alleged.
Rizvi-Mamata
About West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s call for sending the troopers of the UN peacekeeping forces to Bangladesh, Rizvi said Bangladeshi missions in India are now unprotected and a video went viral where a member of Bangladeshi mission was being beaten brutally.
“Even then, Mamata Banerjee will say so. Bangladesh doesn’t need peacekeeping forces, rather India does,'” he said, adding that it is also necessary to send UN peacekeeping forces to Kashmir, Assam and Manipur in India.
Pointing at Mamata, the BNP senior joint secretary general said, “First, take care of your own country. Deploy peacekeeping forces in your country, India, which is necessary in Kashmir, Assam and Manipur.”
Rizvi also called on international human rights organisations to investigate the allegations of atrocities against minorities in various states of India.
Making Bangladesh unstable
Rizvi said countless atrocities against minority communities are happening all the time in India, but the country has no regret or remorse about the incidents.
As part of a master plan, India is expressing unnecessary concern and anger over the situation in Bangladesh, he added.
“To destabilise Bangladesh is a part of India’s master plan so that Bangladesh can’t function properly… This is their international master plan and the people of Bangladesh think that an outside country is involved in this [in destabilising Bangladesh],” he said.
Noting that India’s role is double standard, he said the minorities including Muslims, Christians, lower castes Dalit Hindus and Sikhs have no security in their own country.
Rizvi asked all communities of the country –Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian– to inform the government if anyone feels a sense of insecurity. “The government will take appropriate measures. But there is no point in attracting the attention of India. Stay loyal to your homeland,” he hoped.
Indian media’s chorus
The BNP leader said the Indian media are continuously singing choruses and spreading propaganda against Bangladesh. “They are slandering the supreme sacrifices and contributions of the student masses in this country’s democratic movement,” he said.
BNP leaders Abul Khair Bhuiyan, Tahmina Rushdir Luna, Abdus Salam Azad and Mir Sarafat Ali Sapu, among others, were present at the press conference.
Later, thousands of BNP leaders and activists brought a procession led by Ruhul Kabir Rizvi in front of the BNP’s central office protesting the attack on the Bangladesh mission in India.
