Urging the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to stand firm by the distressed Rohingyas, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday said the organisation must have to maintain international pressure on Naypyidaw to take back their nationals as it has agreed with Bangladesh for their safe return, reports BSS.
Pointing out the message of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to stand by the distressed humanity, she said "OIC fraternity cannot overlook it when the Rohingya community of Myanmar is being subjected to ethnic cleansing".
Sheikh Hasina was inaugurating the two-day 45th OIC Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) here on Saturday.
"OIC must maintain international pressure on Myanmar so that they take back their nationals as it agreed with Bangladesh for their safe return," she said.
"Rohingyas deserve the right to live with dignity like us," she added.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Secretary General of OIC Yousef A Othaimeen attended the function as special guests On the occasion, chair of the 44th CFM and Foreign Minister of C"te d'Ivoire Marcel Amon-Tanoh handed over the chairmanship of 45th CFM to Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali.
Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey and representative of OIC Summit chair Bekir Bozdag also addressed the function while Vice Minister of Indonesia on foreign affairs Abdurrahman Mohammad Fachir, Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir and Foreign Minister of Senegal Sidiki Kaba spoke on the occasion respectively from Asia, Arab and Africa groups
Sheikh Hasina said, "Bangladesh has opened its heart and border for the distressed Myanmar nationals. More than a million Rohingyas took shelter in Bangladesh, purely on humanitarian grounds."
The prime minister said she personally felt the sufferings of the Rohingyas as she herself once suffered refugee like situation for six years after brutal killing of her Father in Bangladesh.
"I was unable to return home after my father, the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, along with 18 family members, was brutally assassinated," she said.
"My appeal, therefore, to the OIC, is to stand solid by the forcibly displaced Rohingyas in safeguarding their dignity and security," she said.
Sheikh Hasina said the Dhaka CFM has come up at a very critical time of history when Islamic beliefs have so fundamentally been challenged.