Bangladeshis ‘not angry but hurt’: Top BNP leader on Hasina’s stay in India

Dhaka, Aug 23: A top BNP leader here said Bangladeshis are “not angry but hurt” over deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s stay in India, even as he urged politicians and security strategists in New Delhi to “rethink” their policy given the ground reality here.
Abdul Moyeen Khan, a former Cabinet minister of Bangladesh, also said his country shares a border with India on three sides and it is a big neighbour, so there is “no reason why India should not be our best friend”.
After unprecedented anti-government protests which reached a crescendo on August 5, Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled the country, even as protesters had termed the fall of the government and her departure a “day of victory”.
She landed in India on August 5 and is currently staying there, even as her over two-week-long presence in India has given rise to speculation here. Khan said the current situation is of “consolidation” and coming back to normalcy. Asked how he saw the trajectory of the Dhaka-New Delhi ties because of the presence of Hasina in India, he said it “depends entirely on how India decides”.
On Hasina’s stay in India after fleeing Bangladesh, he said “Bangladeshi are not angry, but hurt, wounded… as they never expected this”.
The former Cabinet minister claimed that New Delhi’s behaviour towards Awami League and Hasina has “transformed into anti-Indian feeling in a real sense of the term”.
“There is no reason for us to be unfriendly with India unless India behaves in a way that forces the people of Bangladesh to doubt their intentions,” he added.
There are reports in newspapers that the US and UK governments had “refused” to take Hasina in and under these circumstances, she has found “refuge” in India and this is “public information”, the BNP leader claimed. He alleged that policy planners, politicians and security strategists in New Delhi “somehow put their stake in one person and one party, Sheikh Hasina and Awami League” and claimed that it was the “biggest tragedy on the part of India”. (PTI)