Cantonment saved Cox's Bazar from being occupied by Arakan Army: Whip Shaimum

Ruling Awami League MP and a whip of parliament Shaimum Sarwar Kamal today in parliament said Cox's Bazar area would have been occupied by the Arakan Army, if there was no cantonment there.

The Cox's Bazar-3 MP said this while participating in the general discussion on the proposed budget for the 2024-25 fiscal.

He said Myanmar's Arakan Army is fighting an armed struggle. Their location is just two kilometres from his constituency.

"Cox's Bazar would have been unsafe today had the prime minister not allowed a cantonment there. By now they [Arakan Army] would have taken over. The prime minister has already allotted Tk 20,000 crore for the cantonment."

Kamal demanded forming a regional security council comprising Bangladesh, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, and Sri Lanka.

He said thousands of people from Cox's Bazar are in various prisons abroad, adding many people from his areas who were detained in Myanmar have been brought back.

In addition, he demanded the repatriation of Bangladeshis detained abroad with the intervention of the foreign ministry.

"When expatriates of Cox's Bazar who live in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, go to various [diplomatic] missions to renew their passports, the officials in those missions do not recognise them. They say you are Rohingya," he alleged.

He said the embassy cannot differentiate between the dialect of Cox's Bazar and Rohingya.

He urged the ministry to appoint officials who understand the dialect of Cox's Bazar so that their people do not face harassment abroad.