Even as after Bangladesh’s National Security Adviser (NSA) Khalilur Rahman today quietly left Dhaka for a visit to Doha, Qatar, the Army said it was working to protect national sovereignty and ensuring the security of vital state assets and installations, besides maintaining law and order across the country.
Speaking to media persons at the Army Officer’s Mess in Dhaka Cantonment, a Colonel-rank officer of the Directorate of Military Operations said that General Waker-uz-Zaman was playing an active role in maintaining Bangladesh’s stability. “The Army stands united. We have not compromised the border (Bangladesh-Myanmar). This is our country and we will protect it at any cost,” the officer said without mincing words.
The Army’s briefing to journalists took place a few hours after Khalilur Rahman, who was in the thick of a controversy surrounding the thorny and vexatious issue of a “humanitarian corridor” to Myanmar’s Rakhine State, boarded an early morning Qatar Airways flight (QR-639) for an “official visit” to Doha.
The visit, Bangladesh government sources said, was most likely for “consultations” even as other officials said he was in Doha to invite the Qatar Amir, Tamim bin Hamad Khalifa Al Thani’s daughter to visit a Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar. He will return to Dhaka on May 27.
They added that it was unlikely that Khalilur Rahman will “back off” or “stand down” on support to the Arakan Army. Northeast News had earlier reported the departure of US Chargé d’Affaires Tracey Ann Jacobson to Doha, and onward to the US, on May 22.
Briefing media representatives, Colonel Mohammad Shafiqul Islam said he did not have “any information on whether and when China would develop the Lalmonirhat air base”, which is close to India’s Siliguri Corridor or the ‘Chicken’s Neck’.
Col Islam said the “Army expected the (Mohammad Yunus) interim government to take a considered view on any decision that could endanger the country’s security in the context of according permission to any other country” on granting permission to develop or use the Lalmonirhat air base.
The Army’s position virtually nullifies the Yunus government’s move in March this year when the Chief Adviser reportedly invited the Chinese authorities to develop and operate the air base, during his visit to Beijing.
Pointing out that the Army will not hesitate to take strict action to prevent loss of life and property, suppress mob violence and threats to public order, Col Islam said the process to ensure that law and order prevailed across Bangladesh was being done in close coordination with relevant ministries, law enforcement agencies, local administration and various other institutions.
Emphasising that the Army would not be involved in any activity that endangered national security, Col Islam said Bangladesh’s armed forces would be uncompromising “when it comes to issues such as the (humanitarian) corridor and sovereignty”.
ALSO READ: Nagaland University researchers identify beneficial stingless bee species
Speaking to Northeast News, Dhaka-based political analyst Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah said “the Army has not, and will not, budge from its stand on the proposed humanitarian corridor. The Yunus regime should desist from pursuing a move that is fraught with all kinds of security risks. It should also stay away from involving the Army in any kind of support to the Arakan Army”.
Suffice it to say that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) recently, and on multiple fora and occasions, conveyed its strong stand against any “humanitarian corridor” to the Rakhine State. In this context, the BNP had officially sought the ouster of Khalilur Rahman as NSA.
