BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Tuesday urged the interim government to seek assistance from the UN peacekeeping force to ensure the security of 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," Rizvi said during a press conference at the BNP central office in Naya Paltan while talking about Monday's attack on the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission at Agartala, India.
He said that being instigated by the BJP government, "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, vandalized the flagpole and damaged the property inside the mission, 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.
“... The open hostility you have shown against the people of Bangladesh to protect that friendship is not good neighbourly behaviour,” he added.
Rizvi said 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.
Mamata's comment
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 does not 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 organizations to investigate the allegations of atrocities against minorities in various states of India.
Attacks in India
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 destabilize Bangladesh is a part of India's master plan so that Bangladesh cannot function properly... This is their international master plan and the people of Bangladesh think that an outside country is involved in this (in destabilizing 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 felt 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 is 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 held a procession led by Ruhul Kabir Rizvi in front of the BNP’s central office protesting the attack on the Bangladesh mission in India.
