BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has commented that after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in the students' movement, the relationship with India has started melting.
He made this comment in an interview given to Indian news agency ANI after a meeting with Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranoy Verma.
According to this report published on Wednesday (25 September), BNP believes that relations with India have started to thaw after the interim government led by Dr. Yunus took office.
Recently, Indian High Commissioner Pranoy Verma held a meeting with the party's general secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in Dhaka.
While talking to ANI, Mirza Fakhrul said that the meeting with Pranoy Verma has taken both countries in a very positive direction. He said, since the last election in Bangladesh, there were questions about our relationship. But this time the situation has certainly improved with the arrival of the High Commissioner (of India) in our office. The ice has started to melt.
The BNP boycotted the Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad elections held in January 2024. He said India and Bangladesh have always had very good relations and relations have improved. This is definitely the turning point.
The BNP secretary general said his party has assured India that it will not allow separatist organizations to use the soil of Bangladesh if it comes to power though, in the past, militant organizations in the northeastern region of India have been accused of sheltering in Bangladesh.
He said, we have discussed the normal relations between Bangladesh and India. We mentioned water sharing issues, border killings, existing trade imbalances. At the same time, India's main issue was the security problem. Assured that when we come to power, we will ensure that this territory cannot be used by separatists.
BNP Secretary General also said that there was some misunderstanding about the relationship between BNP and India. I think the snow is starting to melt. Hope this relationship will get better. This time they (India) will try to understand our condition; especially India should try to understand the pulse of the people of this country. They should not put all their eggs in one basket. They should develop relations between people (of both countries).
Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly the foreign adviser of the interim government Tauhid Hossain held a meeting with jis Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar. Matters of mutual interest between Dhaka and Delhi were discussed in the meeting.
In this regard, Fakhrul said, Jaishankar's meeting with the foreign adviser is definitely very significant and we believe that the relationship will be stronger after this meeting.
He further said that the cooperation between the people of India and Bangladesh should be strengthened. People-to-people relations are the key to strengthening India-Bangladesh relations.
Regarding the return of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Mirza Fakhrul said, "I don't know whether the government has officially requested India to send her (Sheikh Hasina) back to Bangladesh." But I think the former prime minister should come back and answer to face the allegations against her.