The BNP is speaking the same instigating language as Myanmar on the Rohingya issue, said Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader.

Quader came up with the observation while addressing a meeting on the 44th Martyrdom of Bangabandhu and National Mourning Day. Bangabandhu Krishibid Parishad organised the programme at Krishibid Institution Auditorium on Monday (Aug 26).

“BNP is speaking in the same instigating lines that Myanmar has been for the last two years,” he said.

Citing BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir’s remark that the government had failed to deal with the Rohingya crisis, Quader said, “The Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh due to the inhuman torture of the Myanmar government.”

“Bangladesh gave them shelter on humanitarian grounds and now there are 400,000 Bangladeshis at Teknaf-Ukhiya and 1.1 million Rohingyas.”

The road transport and bridges minister said that Myanmar is being continuously pressured to take them back and that they are under more international pressure than they have ever been.

“Myanmar doesn’t want to take them back. They start delaying every time the issue comes up,” he said.

Slamming the BNP, Quader said “What have they done? They are talking nonsense as they are in a political crisis and failed to wage a movement for the release of their chief Khaleda Zia.”

“The party leaders spew false rubbish to hide their political failure,” he said and added that BNP has become irrelevant in politics.