Newly floated Janata Party Bangladesh on Monday urged the interim government to suspend transit facility given to India through Bangladesh as that country had recently imposed restrictions on imports from Bangladesh through land ports.
The party also asked the government to draw the Indian authority’s attention for pushing ‘killer Awami League leaders’, sheltered in India illegally, into Bangladesh, according to a press release.
Referring to the incidents of pushing people into Bangladesh territory from the Indian side, the Janata Party leaders said such push-in incidents were illegal and inhuman.
Addressing a human chain in front of the National Press Club on Monday, Janata Party secretary general Shaukat Mahmood said that the Indian authority had pushed Bangla-speaking Indian people, Rohingyas into Bangladesh the way United States president Donald Trump administration pushed out people from the country.
‘India has wanted to put Bangladesh in a crisis by restricting its imports from Bangladesh through its land ports. We have to go to Kolkata for exporting goods to Tripura. But, the previous Awami League government had given transit and port facility to India for exporting goods from Kolkata to the seven-sister states,’ said Shaukat.
He urged the government to halt such facilities for India immediately.
Speaking as chief guest, Muslim League president advocate Mohsin Rashid urged the government to summon Indian envoy and lodge strong protests in this regard.
‘I urge the interim government to push back Indian workers staying in Bangladesh illegally,’ he added.
Chairing the event, Janata Party executive chair Golam Sarwar Milon said that it was time to stop India’s pushing people into Bangladesh.
Mentioning Bangladesh as a strong country with the spirit of the War of Independence in 1971 and the 2024 mass uprising, Golam said, ‘We are not anyone’s feudatory state. We respect India’s friendship, language and culture but we hate India’s big-brotherly politics.’
Party vice-chair ABM Waliur Rahman Khan, among others, spoke at the event.
Over 400 people, including Rohingyas and Indian nationals, have been pushed by the BSF and the Indian Navy through land and waters along Indian borders since May 7.
According to the BGB, it has detained 320 people in bordering areas of districts like Khagrachari, Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Kurigram, Thakurgaon and Panchagarh so far since the current spell of push-in incidents has begun.
On May 9, the BSF and the Indian Navy allegedly pushed 78 people, including three Indian nationals, into Bangladesh through the Mandarbaria area under the Satkhira range of the Sundarbans West Forest Zone.
On May 17, the government of India announced new import restrictions on certain goods, including readymade garments, coming from Bangladesh through land ports, effective immediately.
