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Published : 29 Aug 2019, 06:49 PM
The NGO Affairs Bureau move came on Thursday amid criticisms after some Rohingya Muslims were seen carrying sharp weapons during a recent rally in a refugee camp area.
The government also asked the NGO to explain its “controversial activities among the Rohingya”, the bureau’s Director General KM Abdus Salam told bdnews24.com.
The NGO was making and distributing among the refugees unauthorised items in a clear violation of the law, the bureau’s Deputy Director Abdullah Al Khayrum, who works on Rohingya affairs, said.
The refugees organised the rally in a camp area on Aug 25 to mark the second anniversary of the launch of a Myanmar military-led operation.
Myanmar launched the crackdown in response to militant attacks on security posts forcing more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims flee the Rakhine State into Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, the authorities recovered around 650 sharp objects in a drive on a blacksmith store at Kotbazar in Ukhia of Cox’s Bazar.
Locals alleged these were sharp weapons for distribution among the refugees.
Mukti officials said these were not weapons, but sharp gardening objects and not meant for the refugees.
In a letter suspending the six projects, the NGO bureau said Mukti prepared 6,000 “severely dangerous” and unauthorised weeding tools for distribution among the refugees.
Its Chief Executive Bimal Chandra Dey Sarker denied the allegation of distributing sharp weapons among the refugees, saying they outsourced the Tk 200,000 job of making farming tools and was unaware that the contractor was producing these in Ukhia.
The six projects worth Tk 34 million in total had one year term each, he said and added the NGO has 24 other projects.
“The actual truth will be revealed through investigation… The question of distributing dangerous weapons or anything unauthorised doesn’t arise,” he said.
The NGO official also said he suspected the allegations were part of a “conspiracy” against his organisation.
NGO bureau’s Khayrum said: “No matter whether they call these farming tools, these were not authorised by the NGO bureau.”
‘DEEP-ROOTED CONSPIRACY’
The government has been accusing different NGOs working for the Rohingya Muslims of being involved in suspicious activities for quite some time.
It has so far halted operations of six NGOs working for the refugees. These are Islamic Relief, Islamic Aid, Muslim Aid, Small Kindness Bangladesh, Bangladesh Chashi Kalyan Samity, and Nomijan Asthabi Foundation.
The Rohingya rallied at Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar on Sunday marking the second anniversary of the launch a Myanmar military-led crackdown that forced over 700,000 members of the ethnic minority out of Rakhine State into Bangladesh.
The question came as ministers, including Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, pointed finger at the NGO activities in Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar.
The parliamentary standing committee on the ministry last week recommended identification of the NGOs that were allegedly impeding the repatriation.
Senior Awami League leader Tofail Ahmed, citing the foreign ministry on Tuesday, said: “We now see a deep-rooted conspiracy is going on.”
After a meeting of the cabinet committee on law enforcement on Mar 13, its head Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq said many of the NGOs working for the Rohingyas were operating with “ill motive”, citing intelligence reports.
The government had received “some allegations” against some NGOs and asked the intelligence agencies to look into the allegations, he had added.
Read the story in Bangla: এনজিও মুক্তি কক্সবাজারের রোহিঙ্গা বিষয়ক ৬ প্রকল্প স্থগিত
