Reza Mahmud :
Leaders of the country’s opposition parties have expressed frustrations over the visit of US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Nisa Desai Biswal as she did not meet any of them in her two days Dhaka visit to discuss militancy issue.
They said, the militancy is now an important national issue but they have been kept outside the discussion during the visit of Nisha Desai Biswal.
“We hoped that the US assistant secretary of state will discuss the militancy issue with the opposition parties along with the government. But we have observed with frustration that she met only with the government. We think such partial effort will not be fruitful,” BNP standing committee member Brig. Gen (retd) ASM Hannan Shah told The New Nation on Tuesday. He said, the government has intentionally kept the US assistant secretary of state away from meeting with leaders of opposition parties. “The government wants to show that the foreigners are supporting them. But if the people of the country do not support them how long they survive in power?”BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, “It was government to government meeting. So, we did not approach to meet with the visiting US assistant secretary of state.”
Jatyio Party Secretary General ABM Ruhul Amin Howladar told to The New Nation that, “If the US assistant secretary of state met with the opposition leaders, that would have been more fruitful to fight with the militancy.
“It will have been fair if the United States work with all the parties in the vulnerable situation to eliminate extremism. But unfortunately it did not happen,” he said.
Howlader, however, said that the US might thought the government is the perfect tool to combat militancy. Or Nisha Desai Biswal had not enough time to meet with opposition leaders.
Nisha Desai Biswal arrived Dhaka on Sunday for a two-day visit to discuss her country’s probable assistance to Bangladesh to combat militancy. During the visit, she met with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and Home Minister Asaduzzaaman Khan Kamal. The politicians said, such type of foreign officials generally meet various stakeholders like opposition political parties, business bodies and others. But the US assistant secretary of state met only with government leaders and officials. Besides, she also met with some senior journalists. The opposition leaders said, Nisha Desai Biswal should meet with former President and Jatiya Party Chairman Husain Muhammad Ershad, former Prime Minister and BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia and the opposition leader in Parliament Begum Rawshan Ershad. But that did not happen. It made our people deeply frustrated.
