Euro MPs will continue to urge BNP to sever ties with Jamaat, Hifazat, says junior minister

The European Parliament will keep urging the BNP to distance itself from the Jamaat-e-Islami, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam has said.

He said this after a delegation of European Parliament’s Human Rights Sub-Committee met him at his office on Wednesday.

Alam later told waiting journalists that he had showed a video of the violence during the ongoing transport blockade being enforced by the BNP and its allies.

After watching the video, the European parliamentarians said “they would continue their call (to the BNP to snap ties with the Jamaat)," the minister told the media.

The European Parliament, in a resolution last year, had urged the BNP to ‘unequivocally’ distance itself from the Jamaat-e-Islami and Hifazat-e Islam.

Vice-President Christian Dan Preda from Romania, members Josef Weidenholzer from Austria, and Karol Karski from Poland are the members of the visiting Human Rights Sub-Committee team.

They did not speak to media.

The team began its four-day visit on Feb 17 amid the ongoing blockade and shutdowns, triggering speculations that they were on a specific mission.

The EU is Bangladesh’s the largest export market, where all its products enjoy duty-free access.

The junior foreign minister, however, said the team had come to Dhaka at a time when their parliament was in recess as part of their visits to countries getting EU aid.

Alam said the Rana Plaza building collapse, Myanmar refugees, and the amendment to the NGO laws for bringing foreign funds were some of the issues that dominated the discussion.

He said he had used the opportunity to show them a video on the ongoing violence.

The minister said he had also given them some documents on the violence that the delegates felt would be “useful” for them.

They had also enquired about how and when the unrest would be overcome, he said.

The junior minister briefed them on government measures to tackle the situation together with the “people and the law-enforcing agencies”.

Alam also said the delegation had not aired any concern about the human rights situation in Bangladesh.