180 Myanmar army, BGP men to return home, 170 Bangladeshis to be brought back: Hasan Mahmud

Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud Tuesday said measures are being taken to bring home 170 Bangladeshis trapped in Myanmar and send back 180 members of border guard police (BGP) and army personnel of Myanmar who took refuge in Bangladesh.

He was exchanging views with journalists at his ministry in the afternoon.

Hasan said a total of 177 members of Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) and later three of their army personnel took shelter in Bangladesh. “The Myanmar government agreed to take them back after discussions with us.”

“They proposed the sea route (for sending them back). We wanted to send them back this week but as the sea is not favourable, they will be sent next week or as soon as the sea becomes calm,” he said.

“Besides, we proposed bringing back 170 Bangladeshis detained in various ways in Myanmar. They (Myanmar) also responded positively to our proposal,” he said.

About the international response to the Joint Response Plan (JRP) meeting held in Geneva on 13 March to deal with the Rohingya crisis, the foreign minister said the foreign secretary and the prime minister’s principal secretary attended the JRP meeting in Switzerland and “the response to our proposed funding and cooperation is better than last year”.

Responding to a query over BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed’s raising of allegation of corruption against Awami League and comments that the country has become full of beggars, Hasan Mahmud, also Awami League joint general secretary, said that the FBI of the US has given testimony against the corruption and ‘money-laundering’ of the BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman.

Laundered money of Arafat Rahman Koko, Tarique’s younger brother and second son of Begum Khaleda Zia, has been recovered from Singapore, he mentioned.

During their tenure, the country became world champion in corruption for five times in a row and BNP is now talking much to conceal these wrongdoings, he said.

Hasan said there is competition among BNP leaders Mirza Fakhrul, Rizvi Ahmed and Moyeen Khan and this is another reason for making such absurd comments.

Earlier, UK Liberal Democrat Party’s foreign affairs spokesperson (Lords spokesperson) Jeremy Purvis called on the foreign minister at the ministry.

Speaking about the meeting, the minister said he extended thanks to Lord Jeremy for UK’s continued cooperation in the development process of Bangladesh and in dealing with the Rohingya crisis and various areas of mutual interest.

Different issues of mutual interest including their House of Lords’ role in improving relations with Bangladesh were discussed, he mentioned.