UK ‘disagrees’ with Bangladesh government’s explanation on recent killings

The UK says it does not agree with the Bangladesh government’s explanation over the recent killings of secular writers, bloggers, rights activists and members of religious minorities.

London Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 25 May 2016, 09:38 AM
Updated : 25 May 2016, 05:37 PM

Several British MPs expressed their concerns over Bangladesh situation during Tuesday’s session at the UK Parliament.

MP Simon Danczuk asked whether it was time for “some form of sanctions to try to get Sheikh Hasina to hold a proper general election as soon as possible.”

Replying queries, Minister of State Hugo Swire said that there was a ‘disagreement’ over Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina holding ‘opposition’ responsible for the killings and blaming the victims for ‘insulting Islam.’

“...we think the problem goes beyond that,” said Swire, the minister of state for the foreign and commonwealth office.

Bangladesh has seen a wave of attacks on secular writers and bloggers as well as on members of religious minorities since the February 2015 murder of writer Avijit Roy on the Dhaka University campus.

Middle East-based militant group the Islamic State and the al Qaeda have reportedly claimed the murders, but Bangladesh government holds ‘home-grown’ extremists responsible.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been blaming the opposition for the killings for what she claims is an attempt to ‘destabilise the country’.

The foreign minister echoed during his recent meeting with envoys to EU countries in Bangladesh.

According to Minister AH Mahmood Ali, it’s the Jamaat-e-Islami and its affiliates, who are orchestrating the murders, to ‘tarnish’ Bangladesh’s image in the global arena.

He blamed the BNP for ‘patronising’ the Jamaat.

UK minister Swire said in Parliament on Tuesday that the British government was in constant touch with Bangladesh.

Referring to the recent killing of gay rights activist Xulhaz Mannan in Dhaka, an MP asked whether Swire thinks that the UK government were doing enough to tackle the issue of violence against LGBT people.

“Clearly I do not. We have a certain amount of leverage in Bangladesh — we are the largest grant aid donor, giving 162 million pounds in 2015-16— so our voice has some influence over there.

“In the past year, our human rights and democracy programme has provided safety training for bloggers, and we have also funded a project promoting the rights of LGBT groups in Bangladesh, but there is a huge amount more to do,” replied Swire.

He said that that the UK was not ‘shy of pushing’ Bangladesh government ‘in the right direction’.