Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury Sunday said an Awami League government was needed once again to win a maritime boundary case against India as an international arbitration court was going to give a ruling in 2014.
“As Awami League was able to win a maritime boundary case against Myanmar, so it is needed again to win in another case against India,” Matia said while addressing a mass reception at the Engineers Institute auditorium in the port city.
Bangladesh and India approached the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in 2009 to resolve a dispute over their maritime boundary. The PCA, based in the Hague, Netherlands, is expected to deliver a judgment on the case by the middle of next year.
The reception was organised by AL’s Chittagong units in honour of AL lawmaker Mosarraf Hossain becoming a presidium member of the ruling party. ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, president of AL’s Chittagong city unit, presided over the programme, which was attended by thousands of party supporters.
Matia, who was the chief guest at the programme said the government was not happy with the verdict in the Felani shooting case that acquitted an Indian Border Security Force personnel of killing the 15-year-old Bangladeshi girl at a border fence.
“The number of border killings is less during AL regime than during BNP regime,” Matia said, adding that the government would go ahead with an appeal in the Felani case.
Special guest at the reception, Environment Minister Hasan Mahmud said a total of 337 people were killed at the border during the previous BNP regime, while 218 people died in border-killings during AL’s tenure.
About the ongoing trials of war criminals, Matia said the AL government had started the proceedings and it would complete them.
The agriculture minister also said her government provided fertilisers to farmers at a cheap rate, whereas farmers faced a crisis during the BNP regime.
Hasan Mahmud also said militant organisations were now with opposition leader Khaleda Zia, and if her party were to return to power, Bangladesh would become a militant country.
The environment minister refuted BNP leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir’s statement about the ruling party’s weak foreign policy, saying AL never compromised even an inch over national issues.
The speakers also urged party activists to be united for winning the next general elections.
