“I can assure you that such incidents cannot create instability in Bangladesh or tarnish our image globally,” Hasina said.
IANS, Reuters
Dhaka
The recent murders of two foreigners in Bangladesh were a ‘planned effort’ to destabilise Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said yesterday.
Hasina said whenever the global community lauds Bangladesh’s achievement, incidents like these are coordinated to ‘tarnish the country’s image’, bdnews reported.
On September 28, Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella was shot dead by assailants in Dhaka.
Four days later, Japanese citizen Kunio Hoshi was gunned down in Rangpur.
Both were shot thrice by masked assailants riding
motorcycles.
“I can assure you that such incidents cannot create instability in Bangladesh or tarnish our image globally,” Hasina said.
The prime minister was addressing a function after inaugurating the newly-built academic building (Sheikh Hasina Complex) of the Defence Services Command and Staff College at Mirpur Cantonment in Dhaka.
Police have not yet arrested anyone for the Italian’s murder but in Rangpur two persons have been arrested, including a local leader, for involvement in killing of the Japanese national.
“The Japenese man, was brutally killed. We will bring the perpetrators to justice,” said the prime minister.
A senior opposition leader has said the killing of two foreign nationals was a sign that law and order was collapsing and the situation may get worse unless a stalemate between the two main political parties is
resolved.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has staged violent protests since Hasina’s Awami League won a second consecutive term in January 2014. The BNP boycotted the election.
At the same time, Islamist groups have been staging high-profile attacks in the impoverished the country. Earlier this year, four online critics of religious militancy were hacked to death.
“Such downward trends will continue until there is some kind of political reconciliation between the two major political parties in Bangladesh,” Abdul Moyeen Khan, a senior
BNP leader, said.
Moyeen, a former federal minister, said there had been attempts by the international community, including the United Nations, to broker peace between the parties. But months of behind-the-scenes efforts had failed to yield results and the Awami League had refused to engage in negotiations.
Mahbubul Alam Hanif, acting secretary general of the Awami League, blamed the opposition for the political violence and ruled out negotiations.
“There was an election as per the constitution, but the BNP did not participate, and it is their mistake,” Hanif said.
A separate group of 18 diplomats, coordinated by the Australian High Commissioner in Dhaka, has also been trying to encourage the two sides to end the stalemate.
Greg Wilcock, the Australian High Commissioner, said that political differences in Bangladesh
required local solutions.
“We continue to encourage this, engaging constructively with all concerned,” Wilcock said.
Bangladesh has tightened security at a border checkpoint in Jessore district to keep a strict check on nationals and foreigners travelling in and out of
Bangladesh, the media reported.
Benapole land port’s immigration authorities and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) said they received a “special order” from the government to intensify security after the recent murders of two foreign nationals in the country, bdnews24 reported.
Benapole is the most commonly used crossover in Bangladesh to travel to or from India.
“We are constantly forwarding all the details of foreigners entering through Benapole to Dhaka. We have been told to meticulously scrutinise every detail before allowing a Bangladesh national to cross the border,” immigration police official Momin Uddin said.
Security measures have also been beefed up at other border checkpoints with India in the district, said Jessore-based 26 BGB Battalion commander
Jahangir Hossain.
“We are on constant alert so that no criminals can cross the border.”
