The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Sunday objected to the signing of the border demarcation maps between Bangladesh and India without the settling of long-standing disputes over border demarcation and exchange of enclaves.
Member of the party's standing committee, Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, at a discussion meeting also asked the government make the issue clear to the public.
'The government has begun signing the border demarcation map without settling border disputes and finalising the exchange of enclaves.
A 6.5-kilometre strip of the border between Bangladesh and India is yet to be settled.
Why are they signing the maps without resolving the disputes? We have doubts whether the country's interest is being protected by the signing of the
border maps,' said Mosharraf at a discussion of Bangladesh Rural and Human Rights Journalist Forum at the National Press Club.
Mosharraf also asked the government to explain why it the signing was being done so hurriedly.
'The Indian prime minister is coming to Dhaka
in the first week of September. For whose interest are the maps being signed without resolving border demarcation problems?' he asked.
Mosharraf asked the government to refrain from continuing its submissive foreign policy during Manmohan's visit next month, and said that people expected that all the deals to be signed during his visit would be based on equity.
'We are still in doubt whether the upcoming visit of the Indian prime minister will reap any benefit for Bangladesh because of the government's submissive attitude.
We want our due share of the waters of the Ganges and Teesta, and demand that the construction of Tipaimukh Dam be stopped.
But we are not sure whether the government will be able to take up
the issues with India,' he said.
At another programme, BNP's standing committee member Abdul Moin Khan said that the Awami
League has no mandate from people to sign border mapping. 'We have doubts whether our lands are truly protected in the map,' he said.
Bangladesh and India began signing the Border Strip Maps on Saturday, officially recognising the 4,156-kilometre international border after
some 54 years, two weeks ahead the visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Bangladesh's high commissioner in New Delhi, Tariq Ahmad Karim, and the Indian high commissioner in Dhaka, Rajeet Mitter, signed some of 1,149 maps for five sectors on Saturday.
Kamal Uddin Ahmed, chief of the border demarcation team and joint home secretary (political), said the representatives of the two countries would finalise the maps for the 6.5 kilometre-long portion of the border later.
Source : New Age
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