BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir slammed the government on Saturday for its 'silent' role in the recent situation surrounding St Martin's Island, describing it as an expression of the regime's knee-jerk foreign policy, UNB reports.

“The newspapers have reported on the crisis in Saint Martin's Island. A tense situation prevails there. It’s regrettable that we can’t go to our own island. What a failure of this government that we’re being shot and killed from other countries when we go to that island,” he said.

A faction of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) and Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) arranged the programme at the Jatiya Press Club, marking the Black Day of Newspapers.

“The Home Minister said there’s no such situation that has arisen yet where we would give a statement or say anything about it. This regime is so subservient that it can’t say anything about a country like Myanmar. How submissive can its attitude be?” he observed.

The BNP leader criticized the Awami League government for not registering any protest when Bangladeshis are killed along the border (with India) and when the country’s people are deprived of their fair share of water from the common rivers.

“There’s a food crisis on Saint Martin's Island. Hundreds of people are in danger there. But the government is least bothered about it,” he said.

bd-pratidin/GR