Bangladesh govt has failed minorities, shifting blame now, says India

NEW DELHI: The Bangladesh interim govt has failed to maintain law and order in the country and is looking to shift blame elsewhere for its failure to protect minorities, the govt said on Friday. The ministry of external affairs (MEA) was responding to allegations by Dhaka that India fuelled the recent unrest in the Khagrachhari district .

“We categorically reject these false and baseless allegations. The interim govt, which is unable to maintain law and order in Bangladesh, has routinely sought to shift the blame elsewhere,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.

“It would do well to introspect and conduct serious investigations into the action of local extremists committing violence, arson and land grab against the minority communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts,” Jaiswal added.

Bangladesh’s home adviser Jahangir Alam Chowdhury had claimed that “certain quarters” were attempting to inflame communal tensions during the Durga Puja festival . According to reports from Dhaka, at least three people were killed and dozens injured on Sunday as clashes erupted in parts of the southeastern Bangladesh hills between aboriginal tribesmen and the settler Bengali community over the alleged gang rape of a tribal girl.

The police confirmed the deaths of three men without elaborating on their identities, while residents and witnesses said both feuding sides turned violent, setting ablaze each other’s businesses and households in Khagrachhari hill district, approximately 270km northeast of Dhaka on the motorway, according to a PTI report. The clashes occurred following the alleged gang rape of the eighth-grade schoolgirl in Khagrachhari district on Tuesday, one of the three hill districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts bordering India and Myanmar.