TDS Desk:

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Monday appreciated Home Affairs Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury for halting India’s construction of fencing in several zero-line areas along the Bangladesh-India border.

Speaking at a milad and doamahfil at the party’s Nayapaltan central office, he also accused deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of being “sold” to India, claiming she had sacrificed Bangladesh’s interests in favour of the neighbouring country.

Jatiyatabdi Rickshaw, Van, and Auto Chalak Dal organised the programme to pray for BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s speedy recovery as she undergoes treatment in London.

“I thank the Home Affairs Adviser of the interim government as for the first time the BGB and the people resisted the barbed-wire fence that India was forcibly constructing along the border without any consultation,” Rizvi said.

He said Sheikh Hasina and her masters believed they could easily subdue the people of Bangladesh.

The BNP leader also said South Block in Delhi never considered the depth and intensity of the patriotism of the Bangladeshi people.

“They thought that if Sheikh Hasina remained in power, their purposes would be fulfilled. But the Indian policymakers failed to understand that lakhs of people from Jatrabari, Uttara, and Gabtoli could rise up and drive Sheikh Hasina out of Bangladesh,” he said.

Rizvi said India had constructed barbed-wire fences in about 160 locations along the border between the two independent countries from 2010 to 2023, without any prior consultation as Sheikh Hasina gave them that scope, weakening Bangladesh’s sovereignty.

The BNP leader mentioned that India had already fenced over 3,000 kilometres of the 4,156-kilometre-long Bangladesh-India border, leaving only approximately 885 kilometres unfenced.

According to international rules, regulations, agreements, and discussions between the two countries at different times, he said any development plan within 150 yards of the zero line of the border must be discussed between the two countries.

“But they (India) are trying to erect barbed-wire fences in various places, including along Lalmonirhat border, without complying with any of these agreements and regulations,” Rizvi said.

He said the people of Bangladesh have joined the BGB members this time to resist India’s such an unfair move.

The BNP leader said Sheikh Hasina, during her rule, did not allow such an example to happen. “With fascism, with her ruthlessness, with her brutality, she (Sheikh Hasina) worked as a servant of India to serve its interests.”

He recalled that Sheikh Hasina used to say many of her party members could be bought, but Sheikh Hasina could not be bought. “You (Hasina) can be bought first… India bought you first… that’s why you gave India the opportunity to do unequal work by trampling the independence, sovereignty, and glory of your own country.”

Home Affairs Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said on Sunday that Bangladesh halted India’s construction of fencing in several zero-line areas along the Bangladesh-India border as it was a violation of international law.

Speaking at a press conference at the Secretariat on border, he said the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has taken a firm stance to prevent such construction, already halting fencing in five locations, including Chapainawabganj, Nagaon and Dahagram in Lalmonirhat, the adviser added.