December 21, 2016
Dhaka – Dhaka is set to begin talks with Naypyidaw for possible repatriation of the Rohingya Muslims who crossed into Bangladesh facing persecution in neighbouring Myanmar, a senior minister said on Wednesday.
Asaduzzaman Khan, the Home Minister, came up with the claim at a time when global human rights groups and Muslim-majority nations called Myanmar to resolve the crisis.
“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is keeping a close eye on the Rohingya issue. Bangladesh government will discuss the Rohingya issue with Myanmar very soon,” the minister said.
Khan talked to reporters after inaugurating Roangchhari Police Station and Extension Building of Balaghata Police Lines School in south-eastern Bandarban district.
The government vows to show ‘zero tolerance’ against the use of illegal firearms and terrorist activities, he said adding that the law enforcement continues special drive keeping that in mind.
An estimated 21,000 Rohingya Muslims have crossed the border since the Myanmar army began what they say are counter-insurgency sweeps in the western Rakhine state in early October, creating a humanitarian crisis.
Bangladeshi Foreign Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali and Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi on Tuesday visited the camps of the undocumented Rohingya in south-eastern Cox’s Bazar district.
Both foreign ministers talked to the Rohingyas about their plights as five Rohingya women, who took shelter in a mosque, spoke to the ministers about the atrocities they faced in Myanmar.
Rights groups have accused the Burmese military of perpetrating mass murder, looting and rape against the Rohingya as the army began an offensive following attack on police outposts in October that killed nine officers.
Nearly 29,000 Rohingya documented as refugees have lived in two squalid camps in the Bangladeshi border district of Cox’s Bazar, ever since the 1990s, when they were driven out of Myanmar.
The repatriation of Rohingya refugee halted as both Bangladesh and Myanmar failed to continue dialogue on the issues for a long time.
The number of undocumented Rohingya living in Bangladesh is estimated to be between 200,000 and 500,000.
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