"The government's knee-jerk foreign policy and their weakness are solely responsible for its failure to take any effective step to send back Rohingyas to Myanmar,” he said.
The BNP leader said, “The Prime Minister has so far not met any world leader and visited any country over the issue. Even, the government has not been able to take the issue seriously in the United Nations. That’s why people still have to bear a huge burden like that of Rohingya problem.”
He made the remarks while talking to reporters after placing a wreath together with leaders and activists of Jatiyatabadi Muktijoddha Dal, marking its founding anniversary.
Stating that China and India are the two countries that can play a major role in forcing Myanmar to take back its citizens, Fakhrul said the government does not have the capacity to convince the two powerful countries to do so.
On August 25, 2017, the Myanmar military began a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims involving mass killing, rape, and arson that forced over 740,000 to flee, mostly to neighbouring Bangladesh, which was already hosting an estimated 500,000 Rohingya refugees who had fled persecution dating back to the 1990s and after that.
Attempts to send back the Rohingyas to their place of origin failed twice.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in January 2020 imposed provisional measures on Myanmar to prevent genocide while it adjudicates alleged violations of the Genocide Convention, said the human right organisation.
Fakhrul said the freedom fighters who fought for the country and liberated it are now being subjected to repression for their efforts to restore democracy, the main spirit of the Liberation War.
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He said it is regrettable that the cadres of local ruling party MP in Banshkhali, Chattogram, attacked and injured the leaders and activists of the Muktijoddha Dal on Monday.
“We’ve long been witnessing with pain that the spirit of the Liberation War in Bangladesh has been destroyed. The freedom fighters now have no honour and dignity. A plot is going on to make Bangladesh a truly subservient country.”
Fakhrul accused the ruling party of conducting a ‘false’ campaign involving Ziaur Rahman with August-15,1975 carnage while Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman with August-21, 2004 grenade attack incident to make political gains and divert people’s attention to a different direction from its misrule and failures to deliver on all fronts.
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