No Bangladeshi moved to India after 1971: Mirza Fakhrul

No Bangladeshi moved to India permanently after the Liberation War against Pakistan, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has claimed.

“Why would they go? We are economically in better position than them (Indians). The question of our people going to India does not arise,” the former economics teacher argues.

He made the comments at a demonstration outside the National Press Club in Dhaka on Friday as the exclusion of over 1.9 million people from a recently list of citizens in the Indian state of Assam following scrutiny has triggered fears of their deportation to Bangladesh.

The government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has told Bangladesh not to worry about the list, calling it an “internal matter” of India.

But Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said the northeastern Indian state “will ask Bangladesh to take their people back”.

“The government has failed to send a single Rohingya back to Myanmar. A million Rohingya are here for two years. Now a new danger looms. 1.9 million have been left off the Assam citizens’ list,” Mirza Fakhrul said.

“It doesn’t matter to us if someone is left off. We have no objection. We are not concerned about whatever is happening in Assam,” he said.

“But,” he added, “When their ministers call these people Bangladeshis and demand that they be sent back, it becomes a problem for us.”

“We’ve made it clear that none of our people went to India [permanently] after 1971,” the BNP leader remarked.

“We don’t want to interfere in someone’s internal affairs. We want to speak about our problems only,” he said.

He alleged that the government was not speaking about the issue yet.

“I am quite worried,” he said.