US panel may review situation

“If the situation does not improve, we will organize another discussion and then take a clear-cut decision at the initiative of the foreign affairs committee,” said Grace Meng, a member of the committee on Sunday.

There was no alternative to the cooperation of the main political parties to end the ongoing crisis and to hold a free and fair election, she pointed out, speaking to bdnews24.com before a meeting began in New York’s Jamaica.

Expressing concern at the political violence in Bangladesh ahead of the elections, she said this situation was in no way helpful to democracy.

“Uprooting rail lines, bombs thrown at passengers-packed buses, attacks on political rivals and business installations and arson attacks on houses cannot be called political programme.”

Meng said six Congress members, including Foreign Relations Committee chairman Ed Royce and Congressional Bangladesh Caucus chairman Joseph Crowley, had on Dec 12 written to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia to reach an understanding through a dialogue.

She said they had apprehensions about the future of democracy in Bangladesh in view of the present unrest.

Describing Bangladesh to be one of US’s closest allies, she said they did not want to see anything that hampered the country’s progress and development.

She hoped Bangladesh would hold ‘a free and fair election’ with the participation of all political parties.

A sub-committee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs had on Nov 20 held a hearing on ‘Bangladesh in Turmoil: A Nation on the Brink’.

The committee expressed concern over political uncertainty, shutdown and violence on highways and attacks on ‘religious minorities’.

US Congress members Brad Sherman, Tulsi Gabbard, Grace Mengh and Gerald E. Connolly had said at the hearing.

Steve Chabot, chairman of the Sub-Committee on Asia and the Pacific, had chaired the hearing.

Source: Bd news24