The director general of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has confirmed that Myanmar’s border security force will unconditionally release the BGB member they had abducted six days ago.
This comes hours after the Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) told the BGB that they would release Naik Abdur Razzak on condition that Bangladesh took in the 554 boatpeople rescued off Myanmar coast last month.
While talking to the Dhaka Tribune over phone last night, BGB DG Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed said: “I talked with our defence attache in Myanmar, Brig Gen Mahbub, around 7pm today [Monday]. He told me that he had had a successful meeting with the Myanmar home ministry today.“The Myanmar home ministry has confirmed that BGB Naik Razzak will be returned honuorably along with his personal weapon, ammunition, etc unconditionally,” the BGB boss told the Dhaka Tribune’s Mohammad Jamil Khan over phone.
Maj Gen Aziz is now in China on a state tourn.
Earlier, BGP said that they would release BGB Naik Abdur Razzak if Bangladesh accepted the 554 migrants.
Thi Han, Border Guard Police (BGP) Battalion 2 commander in Maungdaw, put the condition forward during a telephone conversations on Monday, said Teknaf BGB 42 Commander Lt Col Abjar Al-Jahid, reports our Cox’s Bazar correspondent.
Myanmar has claimed that the 554 people rescued in a boat off their coast last month are all Bangladeshis. On the other hand, Bangladesh has said that they would bring those migrants back if it was proved that they were indeed Bangladeshi nationals.
Meanwhile, our diplomatic correspondent Sheikh Shahariar Zaman reports that the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry is going to hold an inter-ministerial meeting today about the abduction of BGB member Razzak.
The initiative came after the BGP set the condition for releasing Razzak.
“The ministry has sent the second note verbale to the Myanmar authorities today [Monday] to release Razzak immediately,” said a senior Foreign Ministry official.
The government has kept its pressure diplomatically on the Myanmar to free the BGB soldier.
“We expect to have flag meetings at sector commander level by this week to complete the formalities for releasing Razzak,” he said.
The BGB Naik, along with his SMG, was abducted by Myanmar’s BGP in the Naf River near Jadimura area of Teknaf border in Cox’s Bazar on June 17. In the skirmish that preceded the abduction, a BGB member named Biplob was shot my the members of the Myanmar force.
Protesting Razzak’s captivity, BGB on Friday sent an e-mail and several fax messages to Myanmar. On Thursday, the Foreign Ministry of Bangladesh summoned the Myanmar ambassador to Dhaka to protest the border shooting and abduction.
This is the second such incident since the Myanmar authorities abolished its Nasaka force in July 2013 and deployed the Border Guard Police.
