The ruling Awami League (AL) yesterday rejected the BNP’s allegation that the latter had been prevented from distributing food among the starving Rohingyas, who have entered Bangladesh from Myanmar’s Rakhine state. The AL said the BNP had not handed over its relief materials to a committee formed to reach succour to the refugees.

The AL joint general secretary, Obaidul Quader, explained that a committee had been formed, led by the Cox’s Bazar district administration, to distribute relief among the Rohingyas. He said the BNP leaders should have handed over the food to the committee, but did not do so. And that was why they were unable to distribute the food among the Rohingyas. He said this while talking to reporters after attending a meeting of the party’s relief and disaster affairs sub-committee, held at Sheikh Hasina’s Dhanmondi political office in the city.

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, alleged that the BNP did not want to follow any rule and was only interested in playing politics on every issue. “It’s a humanitarian issue. Why will we obstruct them [BNP] from distributing relief among the Rohingya people,” he added.

The police on Wednesday allegedly stopped a convoy of relief trucks, led by BNP leaders, while it was proceeding towards Ukhiya upazila in the south-eastern district of Cox's Bazar.

Altogether 22 trucks, carrying relief materials, were forcibly parked by the police in front of the Cox's Bazar district BNP office. According to the United Nations (UN), nearly four lakh Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar following persecution by the Myanmar security forces since August 25.