Thaindian News

Dhaka, Jan 16 (IANS) Main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has deferred its planned agitation to protest the five India-Bangladesh accords, inked during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to New Delhi earlier this week, and said it will wait for her briefing on the talks with the Indian leadership.
Hasina will elaborate later Saturday on her four-day visit to India during which three treaties and two memoranda of understanding (MoUs) were signed, the prime minister’s Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad told The Daily Star.

Khaleda Zia, Leader of the Opposition in parliament, deferred the announcement of an agitation to protest the deals and to demand their annulment in view of the press briefing, a BNP release said.

Zia, who is engaging other opposition groups and her Islamist allies, will now make the announcement on the agitation Sunday.

As Zia prepares the BNP cadres for a prolonged agitation and is expected to rejoin parliament that the party has been boycotting since last June, the ruling Awami League (AL) too is gearing up for the challenge.

AL presidium member Obaidul Quader termed the stance of the BNP “a negative political culture.”

“The opposition could talk about the prime minister’s India visit in parliament instead of threatening to go for a movement,” he said.

Commenting on the Delhi parleys, BNP standing committee member Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman said, “We have given everything but we could not achieve anything.”

The BNP wanted concrete solution to longstanding unresolved issues like rightful water sharing of 54 common rivers, maritime boundary and border among other political and economical affairs, he said.

Meanwhile, senior BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury Friday vowed to prevent India from using the Chittagong port.

“Sheikh Hasina has put Bangladesh’s security at risk by allowing India to use Bangladesh’s ports,” Chowhury was quoted as saying by bdneews24 web site.