Awami League general secretary, Obaidul Quader, who is also the road transport and bridges minister, yesterday (Saturday) criticised the BNP for saying that the government was dividing the nation on the Rohingya issue. He said it was the BNP, and not the AL, that was creating a division within the nation.

“We don’t see any goodwill from BNP to forge a national consensus over the Rohingya issue. Rather, the BNP is creating a division in the nation by criticising the government’s efforts to tackle the crisis,” Quader said.

He said this while addressing a press conference organised at the party’s Dhanmondi office to counter BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir’s statement.

Earlier in the day, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir alleged that the government is creating division within the nation, instead of forging national consensus on the Rohingya issue.

About the BNP’s stand on the Rohingya issue, Quader said the BNP is actually feeling jealous over the hectic efforts of the government to overcome the Rohingya crisis.

“Now it is our main challenge to face the crisis. We have already started getting a massive response from the world community to face the crisis. And Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will place the issue at the UN conference,” he said.

In another programme, commerce minister Tofail Ahmed also criticised BNP leaders for comparing Sheikh Hasina with Myanmar President Aung San Suu Kyi. “While the world

community praises our Prime Minister and describes her as the mother of humanity on the Rohingya issue, there is a political party in our country that is comparing our leader (Hasina) with Suu Kyi. Think, how narrow-minded these people are…,” he said.

Tofail, also an advisory council member of the AL, came up with the statement while addressing a programme at the city’s Engineers’ Institution.  

Lauding the Sheikh Hasina government’s efforts to resolve the Rohingya crisis, the minister said the world community is now describing the persecution of Myanmar security forces as genocide due to the successful diplomatic efforts of the government.

“But a quarter with vested interests in our country is still unhappy with the government. I don’t know what they really want,” he said. He also called upon the Myanmar authorities to stop the genocide in the Rakhine State.

AL joint general secretary Mahbub-ul Alam Hanif said the BNP, which failed to resolve the Rohingya crisis while in power, is opposing the present government’s stand on the issue. This is only making its political bankruptcy clear.

“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s role in tackling the Rohingya crisis is being lauded globally. But the BNP is raising questions. Now they are preaching humanity. But where was their humanity in 2015, when they torched hundreds of vehicles, burnt 231 people to death in the name of s political movement,” he asked

Hanif came up with the observations while talking to newsmen after attending the ‘qulkhani’ of fellow party leader, Abdul Motaleb, in Bheramara, Kushtia.