Khaleda for allowing Rohingya refugees inside Bangladesh

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has urged the government to allow Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh.

Her comment comes amid the government's refusal to allow more refugees from Myanmar since 500,000 were already living in refugee camps.

The former prime minister also urged countries neighbouring Myanmar to allow the Muslim minorities fleeing persecution in its volatile Rakhine state.

A large number of Rohingyas, facing crackdown by Myanmar army following the Oct 9 attacks on border posts, are fleeing the country and a coming towards Bangladesh, but Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) is sending them back. 

The government has been urging international communities to mount pressure on Myanmar to settle the refugee issue, highlighting crimes committed by Rohingya refugees who have been given shelter in Bangladesh earlier and living for decades.

Khaleda admitted that the Rohingyas were creating a social problem, but said, "Even after this, I urge the authorities concerned to give the Rohingyas shelter on humanitarian ground."

She said Bangladesh should shelter the Rohingyas as a nation that fought against genocide.

"I also make the same urge to the neighbouring countries and other Muslim nations," she said.

The BNP chief also admitted that sheltering the Rohingyas is not a permanent solution to the problem.

She called for diplomatic effort by Bangladesh and other countries to ensure that the Rohingyas can live in their motherland with the rights of citizens.

Myanmar denies citizenship to the Rohingyas, saying they are actually immigrants from Bangladesh. The stance has not changed even after Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kiy's National League for Democracy came to power last year.

Khaleda termed 'genocide' the persecution of the Rohingyas in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

"People with conscience have been shocked by the demonic drive to uproot a minority group," she said.

"It is a matter of regret and grief that the democratic government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kiy, not the military junta, is the mastermind of the inhumane act," she added.